Innovation in agriculture - the focus of NIK during the seminars of grain producers in Plovdiv and Belogradchik

The team of NIK took part in the traditional annual seminars of the Plovdiv and Vidin Union of Grain Producers. The specialists of the technology company told more about the trends in 2025 and innovative solutions such as:

• Agrisem inventory with care and preservation of soil structure
• Solutions for easy adaptation and transition to conservation agriculture
• The Kverneland — Pudama system for a minimum of 25% fertilizer savings during sowing
• Innovations for autonomous cultivation in the face of XAG agricultural drones.

The presentations were opened with the words:

— You know that we from NIK have always been innovators and we have never bothered to introduce new things, to be at the service of you, the farmers, to help in your daily work.

There are over 30 events that we organized as a team over the past year. These are meetings, demonstrations, forums with farmers, messengers and customers. These events were followed by our in-depth analysis and conclusions, summarizing 4 points of support that are the basis for the forward movement of the farm:

• storage
• adaptation
• saving
• autonomy.

Soil is the farmer's greatest asset and the foundation on which it is built. Or what every landlord works with. Therefore, it is very important to know the areas, preparations, to monitor the processes. The storage of soillargely means the preservation of the soil structure. Either to preserve it, or to improve it, or to restore it. This is done through a number of innovations in processing or the lack thereof. There has long been talk of a minimum, even of zero treatments, of conservation agriculture, etc.

One of the companies we work with is the French “Agrisme”. It offers a line of products aimed specifically at this area. To cultivate the soil sparingly, when it is necessary to go into depth, to work only where necessary and as necessary. As an example, I can give their submarine, which was shown on the fields in Plovdiv together with the autonomous robot Agxeed Ag Bot. You see how good a job — you hardly notice any traces after it. That is, the goal is to loosen it in depth, without turning, to break the plume heel in order to give the cultivated plant the opportunity to develop its root system. This event is carried out once every few years, according to the condition of the soils in the individual farm.

The other series of machines are disc harrows, which are available in different versions — canopies, trailers, folding. They can be small and large — up to 10-12 m working width. They are aimed at the so-called ultrashallow treatments. Depending on the disks we choose, we can work in a really small range. In one of our demonstrations with such a machine, the customer was very satisfied and directly left it on his farm.

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Daniel Nikolov, Product Manager at NIK, focused on the topic of adaptation to conservation agriculture:

In times when the cost per unit area and climatic conditions are the most important for a farm, we as a representative of Agrisme, with the experience we have gained and with our practice in the fields, can present a design for Strip-Till and No-Till machines. This technology is based on modules, based on Lego-construction.

StripCat is Agrisem's Strip-till-cultivator— a machine that works after harvest, in autumn and can even do strip processing directly before spring sowing. In Burgas, we adapted such a machine with sections for sowing rapeseed, which turned out very well.

What are the 4 treatments of this cultivator? The first is cracking the hardened layer and cutting the mulch and plant residue. The second is to clear the plant residue and move it to the untreated area. The third is the work in a depth of up to 25 cm and the stacking up to 24 cm strip. It is important what surface layer it will leave. In this way, localized fertilization is also achieved only in the treated part, that is, we are talking about savings. The fourth treatment is the area that is needed to suggest good and favorable conditions for subsequent sowing operations.

The idea of this Strip-Till cultivator is to preserve the soil layer, the structure of the plants themselves, reduce 30% of fertilizer rates and very good cost savings per acre.

The modular configuration of Agrisem machines offers direct sowing machines that can satisfy the wishes in different working conditions — conventional, conservation farming and minimal tillage. You can only use the seeding frame, then the front hopper for subsequent operations.

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Georgi Georgiev, Product Manager at NIK, drew the farmers' attention to the savings from fertilizers in conventional treatments:

You know that in the last 6 years we have gained quite a lot of popularity in the field of saving fertilizers through the Kverneland threshers that NIK offers. Thanks to the services of Agro service — taking samples and drawing up maps for variable fertilization, the product is placed exactly where it is needed. But we don't stop there. It is in the face of Kverneland that we want to present the new technology of Pudama — point placement of fertilizer in the row. Through it, we could save a minimum of 25% of the fertilizer, which in no way reflects on the final yield.
We conducted experiments in Northeastern Bulgaria not only on corn and sunflower, but 7 variations with and without spot fertilization, in 4 replicates. We followed the results and in 2023 under permanent drought at 100% band fertilization at 15 kg, and at 11 kg (at 25% savings) we achieved not only the same corn yield, but even slightly higher.

The system works!

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Tsvetan Nikolov, sales manager at NIK, touched on the topic of autonomous solutions:

More than 100 Bulgarian farms have acquired a drone in the past year. They have shown the courage to take it to the next technological level. It is a solution that really helps us, because the most important resource is the soil, but also the human factor. Having a drone, we have the opportunity to achieve high efficiency. Our recent experiments prove that we can process up to 170 decares per hour, spraying. Among your biggest expenses are fertilizers. Our recent experiments are related to a variable rate of drone fertilization. Fully in the direction of resource reduction and cost optimization. Our experience has been successful and we hope to develop in this regard.

In addition to the currently massively used drones for spraying cereals in our country, they are also successfully used for shading greenhouses. NIK also sells sprinklers, we do not exclude them, but for some activities, in some conditions they are simply not applicable. Drones are also suitable for vineyards, for fruit trees, they can also be used in swampy plots, puddles, mud... When it would be difficult for a sprayer with a tractor to enter.

NIK does not stop doing trainings at NIK Academy for people who have bought drones or are about to come — with theoretical and practical part. Something really very useful! Last but not least — our service specialists throughout the country are trained and can respond very quickly and adequately to the need for service.

Team of “Agrovestnik”