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The AGRA 2020 International Agricultural Exhibition was held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, from 19 to 23 February 2020. AGRA 2020 has established itself as the largest economic event for agribusiness in SouthEastern Europe and is organized under the auspices of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forests of the Republic of Bulgaria.
The event attracted 40,000 visitors and the leading manufacturers and exhibitors in the field of agro-industry from over 400 companies located in 19 countries. It’s being recognized globally as a prestigious forum for innovation. The participants have the opportunity to show and demonstrate the latest generation of innovative technologies and equipment for different types of farms, economical inventory, improved varieties, and breeds.
Two of the PlantaSYST partners, the Maritsa Vegetable Crops Research Institute (MVCRI), presented by its Director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daniela Ganeva and Assist. Prof. Dr. Stanislava Grozeva, and the Center of Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (CPSBB), presented by Assist. Prof. Dr. Gergana Zahmanova and Peter Kazakov, participated in AGRA 2020 with products of MVCRI and with a poster about the vision, mission, structure and scientific achievements of CPSBB. During the exhibition, Dr. Zahmanova and Mr. Kazakov held numerous work meetings with industry representatives from both national and international companies among which: several meetings with big companies for soil fertility (BioActiv, ActiveGreen), seed selection and seed production (Florian Ltd, Bayer CropScience, Enza Zaden, GeosemSelect), biostimulants production (Agrospeis Ltd, Lebosol Ltd, FoliQ, SumiAgro), and others (Agrotime Ltd., Aqua Systems, KBC Agro Bulgaria-YARA, KWS Bulgaria, BEJO ZADEN). The opportunities for cooperation between science and business, through the signing of preliminary framework agreements between the CPSBB and the Industry, were discussed during the meetings.
Zahmanova organized a meeting with BioActiv‘s and ActiveGreen’s directors Dimitar Dimitrov and Emilian Dinkov and CPSBB’s director Associate Professor Tsanko Gechev. The main activities of the BioActive and ActiveGreen companies are the development of products for increasing the soil fertility and the plants’ health. The possibilities of merging a cooperation agreement and a contract for the implementation of certain scientific projects were discussed. A meeting with ROMB Ltd. (Marina Badalova _was held. The discussions revealed mutual areas of work in the development of plant tissue culture for different crops. The progress of the CPSBB was presented, both in the scientific field and in terms of infrastructure development. A special focus was given on the applied research conducted by CPSBB. Mr. Kazakov and Dr. Zahmanova invited many the above-mentioned companies to the forthcoming International Conference on Plant Systems Biology and Biotechnology (ICPSBB 2020), organized by CPSBB.
Assist. Prof. Dr. Gergana Zahmanova (left), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Stanislava Grozeva (middle), and the MVCRI Director Assoc. Prof. Dr. Daniela Ganeva (right) present CPSBB and MVCRI during AGRA 2020.