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Outcome of the expert meeting "Modern access of transferring knowledge in agriculture"

The expert meeting took place in Belgrade, Serbia, on 12 June 2018. The event has been organised by the Faculty of Agriculture at the University of Belgrade, in cooperation with IAMO. This expert meeting was realized within the project "Open Doors" with support of the Serbian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

The successful knowledge transfer would be a one of the keys for the international competitiveness of Serbian agri-food sector. Further development of innovation and digitalisation process and dynamic knowledge transfer they require could significantly contribute to the competitiveness increases. Policy makers already have recognized the importance of knowledge transfer making it the one of the objectives of Serbian Agricultural and Rural and Policy for the period 2014-2024, too.

The expert meeting was opened by the dean of the Faculty of Agriculture. In the introduction presentation by Professor Zaric, it was pointed out the importance of the participation of all stakeholders in the knowledge transfer, followed by the presentation of IAMO with the topic of international knowledge transfer. IAMO was presented by Borislav Rajkovic, PhD student at IAMO and DAAD scholarship holder. At the end of the session Rajkovic was interviewed by the national television journalist.

The main part of the meeting was focus on presentation of successful Serbian companies and their experience in knowledge transfer, requirement for the new skills of the student and further challenges in education system.

Delta Agrar, one the leader in the Serbian animal production, was represented by the animal production manager Mr Lazic. His view of the knowledge transfer, confirmed a basic assumption that there is a need of the permanent employees’ education in order to be the leader in the branch. Each newcomer in the company has to gain experience in all processes in the company. Knowing processes leads to a better understanding of company functioning. Moreover, successful knowledge transfer within the company makes company stronger.

A feed producing company “100%” underlines importance of the control of critical points in animal fodder. The buyers of the company’s products are animal farms of different sizes. Company’s research shows, that the main purchasing criteria is the price. As the “100%” is mainly oriented to the top quality products, the main issue is selling the product to the small producers. Knowledge transfer in this case helps farmers to take the best decision, increasing their willingness to pay for a premium products counting on the future benefits from it. Serbian agricultural market is more or less open and small producers suffer from international competition, resulting in tendency of going out of the production. Commercial farmers would be in focus of the further knowledge transfer-it was underlined by the company director for technology Mr Zivojinovic.

Precise agriculture was the presented topic by the company “Livona”. The company director, Mr Jovanovic, pointed out, that precise agriculture reduces costs, time and labour force. Using data of the precise agriculture help farmers to take the best decision regarding the fertilisation, plant protection, harvest, storage and selling of agricultural products.  In order to obtain precise agriculture, farmers need knowledge from the different fields. Besides the obvious advantages, knowledge transfer about precise agriculture is still confronted by a lot of prejudice, especially by experienced farmers.

Digital marketing was topic by Nikola Vukovic from “Evoke”. Based on the own experience it was shown that digital marketing could reach target group every time, 24 hours per day. He presented that consumers in Serbia are sensitive to the nice stories given through context marketing.

Implementation of the digital marketing in vegetable selling was presented by the company “Iceberg Salat Centar”. The marketing manager and the owner Mrs Popovic-Bujic, pointed out, that they were started to sell cut, mixed and packed vegetables in the season 2005/2006. At that time they were only one Serbian company selling vegetable on this way. At the beginning they didn’t have success at all, but they were persistent in this marketing strategy. They started to use digital marketing in the season 2010/2011, with approximately 10% of the marketing budget. Nowadays, the complete marketing activities are digital and the company is working on export strategy concerning the Western Balkan.

Representative of the Serbian Intellectual Property Office, represented by the Mrs Milovanovic, had revealed importance of the protection of the intellectual property rights and the ways how it could be done.

The owner of the company WooBox, Mr Marinkovic showed participants how to raise funds for innovative idea. The company had won several international prizes for innovative ideas and is in the process of assembly establishing in Serbia.

Center for technology transfer, University of Belgrade, was represented by the general manager Dr Milosavljevic. He pointed out to the different successful cases in fund raising and explained how to finance innovative ideas.

A team of students presented the Agricultural Faculty communication on the social networks and its effects of new comers and knowledge and experience transfer between students.

“The expert meeting on knowledge transfer shows that in digital age and industry 4.0 knowledge transfer is important competitiveness variable. Innovations are driving force of development and changes. On the example of the small dynamic company we documented how knowledge completely changed the marketing strategy of companies. Contemporary approach to agricultural knowledge transfer would enable creative potential in the companies”, concludes the coordinator of the project ‘Open Door’, Professor Vlade Zaric.


Contact

Dr. Ivan Duric

Dr. Ivan Duric

Research Associate
Room: 227

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