BGAJ members have the chance to join an IFAJ trip to Serbia this May, visiting LoginEKO’s pioneering 3,700ha organic farm and exploring its tech-driven approach to sustainable crop production.
Jeremy Clarkson threw himself into it in finding life after Top Gear, while Andy Cato sold the rights to his Groove Armada music catalogue in pursuit of it.
In Serbia, meanwhile, it’s Samo Login who’s put his fortune into ‘it’ – farming – and his money where his mouth is. After the $1bn sale of the mobile game company he co-founded, the tech entrepreneur went on to establish a 3,700-hectare organic farming enterprise in Serbia. – somewhere he aims will act as a demonstration farm and proving-ground for sustainable crop production.
LoginEKO says it’s addressing the challenges of modern food production by developing and sharing sustainable, organic farming practices to encourage their wider adoption, and attempting to prove that such practices can work at scale.
Arguing that traditional agricultural methods – what it refers to as conventional agriculture – prioritise short-term yield gains at the expense of long-term sustainability, and that climate change may make some croplands uncultivable, LoginEKO is focusing on developing its own farming methodology.
Now, as part of that approach, LoginEKO is inviting agricultural journalists from IFAJ to visit the farm and explore for themselves its research-based strategy for sustainable farming. Centred on organic principles, but livestock-free, its philosophy leans heavily on legumes in a multi-year, low-input, low-till rotation system.
The visit, scheduled for 12-14 May, will also demonstrate – unsurprisingly for a farm established by a tech entrepreneur – its agtech tools and in-house farming software that variously combines AI, drones, telemetry and weather data. The system supports all operations on the farm, from planning, through field activities, to processing and storage.
Attendees will see how the system incorporates data from in-house field trials and production fields with current projects, including crop selection, multi-year crop rotations, and integrated weed control. LoginEKO has extended use of the software to other farms in the region for testing, ahead of its intention to make it publicly available, for free.
The visit, for a group of up to 10 IFAJ members drawn from Northern Europe, should appeal to BGAJ members with interests not just in organics and regenerative farming but more widely in sustainable crop production. LoginEKO will cover costs of the farm visit: flights to and from Belgrade, accommodation and transport to and from the farm.
The trip organiser, IFAJ secretary general Adrian Bell, is also working with the IFAJ’s Serbian guild, AGROPRESS, to add more depth to the visit. This may include a meeting with Serbia’s Minister of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Dragan Glamočić, or senior Ministry representatives, to provide broader insight into Serbian agriculture, context and current priorities, as well as further visits to farm and processing facilities.
Interested? There’s at least one place available for a BGAJ member. Contact Adrian at adrian.bell@agromavens.com before March 13 for more information and to apply.
For more info on the IFAJ, contact Olivia Cooper: international@gaj.org.uk.
Members of the Guild automatically become members of the International Federation of Agricultural Journalists and the European Network of Agricultural Journalists, giving them unique access to a global network of agricultural communicators.
Learn more: gaj.org.uk/international
