Smartberry: Bosnian innovation in strawberry production

SARAJEVO, (Patria) - With the support of the Sweden/USAID FARMA II project, the company Fruit Prom is developing a mobile phone application that will initially warn 60 strawberry producers about potential pest or fruit disease infections using agrometeorological data and create soil fertilization plans based on the analysis of individual plots. This should help them reduce production costs and increase annual revenues to almost 2.8 million KM.

"We spend a lot of time in the field, working with farmers and advising them. That's how we learn about their needs. One of them was accurate and timely information about when they should spray and protect their fruit, as well as when and what type of fertilizer they should use," says Armin Terzić. "That gave us the idea to develop a mobile application that would do just that," he adds.

Armin is the head of production at Fruit Prom from Koraj (Lopare). The company, founded in 2016, is now one of the leading strawberry seedling producers in the country, with a production capacity of 700,000 seedlings per year.

They also grow strawberries and trade other materials and equipment for fruit cultivation. With the support of the Sweden/USAID FARMA II project, they are currently developing the Smartberry application and installing an agrometeorological station. These two will provide invaluable information to strawberry producers in the municipalities of Lopare and Čelić, and the Brčko District, and help them increase their production at lower costs.

According to Armin, agrometeorological data can be used to determine when certain insects might attack strawberries or when the fruit might be susceptible to diseases.

"We will install an agrometeorological station in our orchard. It will measure air, soil, and plant temperature and humidity. It will also measure wind speed and count insects. It will provide about ten types of data, ten parameters, which the Smartberry application will analyze. The application will inform farmers about potential dangers to their strawberry fields and what protective measures they should take and when," he says.

"Based on soil analysis data, the application will also create an optimal fertilization plan for each farm."

Armin explains that all this information will enable farmers to buy and use protective agents only when necessary, as opposed to preventive spraying of orchards as advised by many agricultural pharmacists.

"Humidity data will help farmers react in a timely manner and prevent fruit diseases such as root or fruit rot. This, along with optimized fertilization, will lead to increased yields."

He notes that they aim to achieve 15 percent higher yields and reduce the costs of plant protection products by 20 percent by optimizing their use. In simple terms, this means that 60 farmers from Lopare, Čelić, and Brčko should be able to increase strawberry production from 1,000 to 1,150 tons, increase total revenues after sales to almost 2.8 million KM, and reduce total costs of protective agents from an estimated 300,000 to 240,000 KM annually.

Introducing any innovation requires education. Therefore, with the support of the FARMA II project, Fruit Prom will organize three training sessions for 60 farmers on using the Smartberry application, proper plant protection, and fertilizer use.

"We will conduct the training sessions successively to refresh farmers' knowledge on plant protection and soil fertilization, and we will train them to use the application and familiarize them with the warnings it will send them," says Armin. After the training sessions are completed, Fruit Prom will visit the farmers to provide them with on-site instructions on using the application and enable them to utilize all its benefits.

Armin says that many are looking forward to lower costs and higher yields. "Not so long ago, we published information about the development of the Smartberry application on our social networks, and we are already receiving inquiries about it from different parts of the country, such as Krajina and southern Herzegovina. They would, of course, have to install their own agrometeorological stations, but we are already discussing ways they could use the application."

Smartberry is the first Bosnian application designed to help strawberry producers. In parallel, the Sweden/USAID FARMA II project also supports the development of ICT solutions to help milk producers and beekeepers.