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Conversation with prof. Daniel Berckmans, KU Leuven, Belgium, and University of Tennessee, USA.

Collocutor Petya Ivanova, member of the Association of Bulgarian No-Tillers

Collocutor Radan Kanev, Bulgarian member of the European Parliament, Group of the European People’s Party, Democratic Bulgaria Coalition, Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, Committee on the Environment and Public Health, Committee on Petitions  

Collocutor Yuliana Nikolova, director of Center for Policy Modernisation whose main mission is to monitor common EU policies.

Collocutors Professor Margarita Karamihova, professor emeritus of University of Veliko Tarnovo and Dr. Ildiko Otova, New Bulgarian University.

Collocutor ​​​​​​​Assoc. Prof. Darina Zaimova,Trakia university Stara Zagora and coordinator of Smart Animal Husbandry research programme. Animal husbandry is among the most dynamic and important sectors in Bulgaria that has in the recent years been transforming economically, socially, from market and resource perspective. The National Research Programme includes all the key transformations such as automation, robotics, cyber-physics and production processes, genetics, selection, biodiversity and ecology.

Collocutor Dr. Zvezdomir Zhelev, assistant professor at Plovdiv Agrarian University, Phytopathology Department. Precision farming uses technology: information t6echnology, internet and communications, measurable data such as chemical control of diseases, mineral fertilizers, in other words precision comes from the application of chemical science and technology. It is related to sustainable agriculture, to smart agriculture and is thus part of a broader concept. Farming is not an easy job. It involves agronomy, organization, working with people, technology and institutions, with markets and that makes it quite complicated. Precision and the new technologies facilitate this work, both the administrative and the field aspects.

Collocutors Toma Staykov, manager of the Bulgarian no-till association and Martin Mikush, urbanist. Organic farming is more about imposing limitations, what can and what cannot be done. No-till is not one of its principles. But actually organic farmers can use conservation practices. I would say that will be the best option, a combination of organic and no-till. Conservation agriculture in turn does not prohibit the use of pesticides at the start, that is part of the journey. So when one starts the transition, the journey will gradually take him or her to the moment when there will be no need for pesticides or even herbicides.