What are the trends and technologies in agriculture of the future?

During the past week, Ivo Kumanov and Kaloyan Kumanov were special guests of the program 100% Awake on the Bulgarian National Television.

The main topic was the trends in high-tech agriculture and what is to come in the sector. As founders of a pioneering company in new technologies — NIK, Ivo Kumanov and Kaloyan Kumanov shared more about the technological development and practices in the agriculture of the future.

Young people in agriculture

One of the main issues facing the sector is staffing and how young people can start their career in agriculture.

This year our company turns 20 years old. These are years in which one of our main aspirations was to attract more and more young people who want to engage in agriculture. — shared Ivo Kumanov

We believe that new technologies are not only the key to more profitable agriculture, but also something that makes agriculture an attractive sector for young people to work - added Kaloyan Kumanov

Technologies for more efficient farming — agricultural drones and selective spraying

Trends and technologies in agriculture are of course related to solving some main challenges, namely, as we mentioned the lack of personnel, the use of fewer pesticides and the production of better quality food with less costs - explained Ivo Kumanov

The case of the application of pesticides on the one hand and the protection of bees on the other, comes to the fore more and more. One of the solutions for it is, for example, spraying with agricultural drones. Drones can spray crops at night when bees are not flying.

In this way, we not only protect the bees, but we put less preparations or if we do, we only use the right amount and in the right place.

This leads to the production of cleaner and better quality food.

Our food comes from a variety of resources. And if a while ago we thought in the direction of how to make food better, in recent weeks the focus has also been on making it more affordable as a price and ensuring our food security. The goal is to create better quality food at a more affordable price. When we talk about technological agriculture we are talking about a serious scale. I can mention that our clients /in Bulgaria, Romania, Italy, South Africa, etc./, cultivate several thousand acres of land - comments Kaloyan Kumanov

The development of digitalization of Bulgarian agriculture

Let me start with the fact that only in Bulgaria we can already talk about several thousand semi-autonomous machines in agricultural farms, thanks to the solutions of NIK.

This contrasts with the widespread belief among people outside the sector that agriculture in Bulgaria is backward.

For years, innovative technologies have been applied in a number of farms, and in the future we will increasingly see the so-called artificial intelligence in the field, such as selective spraying only on weeds, which saves from the use of pesticides - added Kaloyan Kumanov

The need to implement new technologies

The future of agriculture in Bulgaria and around the world is high-tech. New technologies are entering at a rapid pace. They are an important part for the development of the sector and our food security, which determines the need for them - summed up Ivo Kumanov.