New meteorological stations for higher yields in agriculture
Sombor, Inđija, Vrbas, Bačka Topola and Subotica will be the first local governments in Serbia to receive state-of-the-art meteorological stations and provide farmers with real-time data on microclimatic conditions and weather forecasting with 90% accuracy. It is part of an improvement that will contribute to more efficient and easier data collection aimed at increasing yields, with optimal use of fertilizers, pesticides and water.
Meteorological stations will be installed within the Municipal Land Management Digitalization project implemented by NALED and Telegroup, with the support of the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) and will be part of the AgroLIFE platform for more efficient planning and management of agricultural production on leased state-owned land managed by local governments.
- AgroLIFE software, developed by Telegroup, enables local governments to automatically manage, review and process all data necessary for quality land management, as well as to monitor changes that have occurred on the plots. A set of tools for planning, organizing and managing agricultural production will provide users with higher yields and total revenues while reducing operating costs. Through NALED’s, Telegroup’s and GIZ’s project, further development of this platform will contribute to more efficient use of arable land owned by the state, increase the satisfaction of tenants and preserve the land quality - said Diana Gligorijević, Co-owner of TeleGroup and Stefan Đurovic, Project Manager in a joint statement.
More than 45% of the total Serbian territory is used as agricultural land, of which 515,000 hectares are state-owned land managed by local governments and leased. Practice has shown that, due to the lack of information, improper cultivation has led to a decline in field quality.
- More than half a million agricultural farms are registered in Serbia, and 65% of the total leased land that is in Vojvodina. The local governments involved in the project were among the first to develop the use of digital land management software, and now work systematically to strengthen the agriculture competitiveness by introducing meteorological stations as a new service for the local population. Most of them also passed the cities and municipalities with a favorable business environment certification program, which testifies to the good business climate in these places – said Violeta Jovanović, NALED Executive Director.
The Memorandum of Understanding on improving the capacity of cities and municipalities for digital land management was signed by representatives of pilot cities and municipalities in Serbia, NALED, the Telegroup company and the German Development Cooperation (GIZ).
Amira Omanović, Project Manager at the German Development Cooperation, said that farmers, in cooperation with municipalities, are opening new opportunities to increase productivity and yield quality, by connecting to a unique digital platform that can be upgraded with specialized equipment such as weather stations, sensors and the like. On the other hand, municipalities can more easily and efficiently monitor the use of leased agricultural land, in order to preserve its quality and prevent degradation, and at the same time it is possible to access data on the type and structure of total agricultural production in the municipality.
The project is of a regional character, so in the next phase, municipalities in Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina will be included. As local governments in Serbia already use the AgroLIFE platform as a pilot, they will mentor colleagues in neighboring countries, which will enable regional experience exchange and contribute to the digitalization process in our region.