The conference on the results of this year's harvest, held under the auspices of the international agrosalon Země Živitelka, was attended by the top Czech agricultural experts and summarized the results of the currently ending harvest of the climatically and economically stormy season. It was modern agricultural technologies that help to reconcile the demands for economic efficiency of farming with respect for the environment and the quality of the food produced.
"I thank Czech farmers for their work. Despite the rainy turn of the summer, they worked day and night so that at this moment the vast majority of the harvest is "under the roof"; opened the "press conference" the President of the Chamber of Agriculture Jan Doležal. He then identified the most pressing problem farmers will face as the lower quality of cereals harvested after the rains and the complicated marketing, which was also the subject of a presentation by Martin Volf of the Commodity Council for Oilseeds and Cereals.
Minister Marek Výborný described this year's harvest as an excellent result, highlighting the year-on-year increase in yields for both wheat and rapeseed by almost three percentage points (wheat was harvested at an average of 6.16 tonnes per hectare and rapeseed at 3.44 tonnes per hectare). The Minister stressed that new technologies had contributed substantially to the higher harvest and drew the attention of the agricultural public to the subsidy title for farm modernisation, which has just been announced, amounting to a total of CZK 8 billion.
Alena Stiborová, responsible for agricultural insurance of Generali - Česká Pojistovna holding, summarized the major climatic problems of the past business year - a warmer-than-average winter, which took a toll on winter crops, a wet and cold spring decimating fruit trees, drought at the turn of spring and summer and a number of fires accompanying harvest work.
The end of the conference belonged to Lukáš Musil from Agdata, a technology company that introduces precision farming practices to Czech farms. In his evaluation of the results of a survey among domestic farmers, he highlighted their technological readiness and openness to new practices. "Ninety per cent of the farms surveyed use satellite signals for precision ag work. Seventy percent apply targeted crop protection products and sixty percent rely on satellite monitoring of fields and crops."
There is therefore considerable scope for targeted motivation of farmers and state support for modern agriculture, which uniquely combines economic efficiency with more environmentally friendly use of fertilisers, seeds and pesticides. "Case studies of the application of our technologies in specific fields have shown a reduction in farming costs in the lower tens of percentages while increasing yields by higher units of percentages. We help farmers save on artificial fertilizers and pesticides, while contributing to increasing their yields. We are contributing to a more sustainable landscape"; concluded the visionary Musil.
Matěj Pomahač, Agdata, 25.08.2023