He divides his time between the Agricultural University and over 100 greenhouses in the village of Katunitsa
Prof. Atanas Sevov is one of those people who look equally good in a suit and farm work clothes. IN Agrarian University is the dean of the Faculty of Agronomy. And in his farm on the outskirts of the village of Katunitsa, he manages the production of vegetables in over 100 greenhouseslocated between the Chaya and Maritsa rivers.
“At the moment, in the polythene tunnels, which are on twenty acres, I have green onions, garlic and salads. We started cutting the salads already on February 15. In the summer, on the outdoor areas (between 130 and 160 decares), I grow different varieties of pepper and all types of eggplant – black, white, patterned and green. I’ve never relied on just one crop, because if the price crashes, there has to be another to pull you out. But I don’t go to too many cultures, because each one has its own specifics,” explains Atanas Sevov. He has already planted lettuces outside as well, covered them with agrill since we are still officially in the season of winter.
Twenty workers are assigned to a labor contract. Their work is so well organized that they have full-time and year-round employment.
The difficult start
It wasn’t easy at first.
Nasko Sevov started with six tunnels. (Much of the construction of the greenhouses was invented by him.) He planted them with pepper and intended to devote his weekends to vegetable production. Finding workers proved to be a major problem because he could not compete with the local manufacturers who had personal relationships with the people. That’s when I realized, he says, that I had to grow vegetables year-round to be able to guarantee myself that I would keep contract workers. He did it and freed himself from the tension with the labor deficit, which by the way is deepening from year to year.
The problem with the market created enormous discomfort. The future docent got up at 3 o’clock, took the produce to the stock exchange. After the sale, he returned to the farm. Assigned tasks to workers. He was going home to sleep for a while. And the farm… well, it was run on autopilot.
Then, in 2011, Atanas Sevov found the answer that is under the nose of every manufacturer. He visited Kaufland and after talking with the merchants decided to produce what they suggested. “Immediately it became easier because I could now plan my work. We negotiate types of vegetables, sometimes even varieties, as the store chain wants to offer homogeneous produce.” Kaufland was also chosen because of the logistics center that is nearby, in the Plovdiv region. The principle is clear: First find the market, then produce.
To understand plants
“I have read a lot about hydroponics, the substrates that are used and the natural soil fertility. Finally I decided I would look at soil since that is the natural environment. With bioagents, and in extreme cases with pesticides.”
Nasko Sevov’s connection with agriculture is in his blood. His grandfather, whose name he bears, was the director of the Maize Institute in Knezha. His father Veselin Sevov worked as a researcher at the Institute of Plant Genetic Resources in Sadovo and also worked with corn. Nasco, however, has taken the more difficult route – to vegetables that require more observation and care.
“Plants show how they are feeling. Very often diseases are not just spores or enemies. They are also a matter of agricultural technology. You have to see the reason,” Nasko explains.
He makes his own seedlings. He bought a machine for sowing seeds in trays and set aside several greenhouses for seedling production. Only the early pepper will rely on someone else to raise the seedlings as it requires warmer conditions. “Knowing the biology of plants and knowing what they need when, it gets the job done,” says the agronomist-scientist.
I don’t want to switch to organic production, because sometimes it is necessary to use chemistry depending on the situation, Nasko explains. In addition, there is no market in Bulgaria and no price adequate to the cost of organic production. “If I don’t do the math well, I won’t stay on the market for long,” he points out logically.
Propane backup plan
He does not heat the tunnels as he does not want to take any chances. He says that it is difficult for us to compete with countries like Greece and Turkey. There is de facto no winter there, no frosts. In order to produce winter vegetables in heated greenhouses, we must be prepared to compete with imports from warmer countries, bringing high-cost produce to market. “I’ve always tried to have a plan B. Heating is an option, but we never know what prices we’re going to sell at.” What will be the average price and will it not be below the cost incurred. When you minimize costs, somehow you can float more easily if there is a shock”, reasoned the vegetable grower Sevov.
However, he has a LPG tank just in case. He also holds it because two block greenhouses rise in the middle of the sea of tunnels. If heavy snow falls, he will need to heat them so that he can melt it before bringing down the facilities.
Without tomatoes and cucumbers
Due to imports from Poland, he does not grow the king of vegetables – the tomato. He tried, but the cost of production was higher than the retail price of imported tomatoes. And he refused.
Regarding cucumbers, he says that he cannot produce them because of nematodes in the soil. But he adds: “Yes, there is no crop that is more profitable than cucumbers in greenhouse conditions. Perhaps only parsley per unit area is more profitable. But the cucumber requires a different type of care. 10 degrees is her biological zero and you have to provide them. In winter, however, temperatures drop to -20 degrees and heating becomes mandatory. Not so with salads. When it’s very cold outside, it’s enough to wrap them with agrill and they will survive.”
Climate and investment
“My grandmother used to say that corn stops pollinating when it gets hot. Then the temperatures reached 37-38 degrees in the shade and it looked scary. In the last 2-3 years, we already have more than 40 degrees in the shade. But plants don’t stand in the shade, do they? We know from their biology that 35 degrees or so is the upper threshold above which they either shed flowers and abort or there is no pollination. The predictions of many organizations dealing with agriculture are that after 2030-2035 it will be almost impossible to grow vegetables outdoors. They will have to be under cover because of the acid rain, sand storms and so on. Even if we make greenhouses like a tobacco dryer – only with a ceiling and open sides, the microclimate there will still be more favorable than it is in the field. Many times I’ve seen perfect looking tomatoes that only need one rain to dry out.”
For this reason, Nasko Sevov uses the subsidies to reinvest them in new greenhouses. He left their modernization for later. Now his goal is to make as many roofs as possible for the vegetables to protect them from global warming.
When we have greenhouses, we can help in the summer by shading the roofs and turning on the irrigation system, he explains.
Several tasks before the Bulgarian agricultural ministers
Prof. Atanas Sevov highlights several important policies that have not been implemented by any minister so far. He wants to do everything possible to protect Bulgarian production. And finally to implement regionalization of agricultural crops.
“The authorities can think about how to limit the import of production in the periods when there is enough Bulgarian production in our country. And how to stimulate it in case of shortage. I am talking about imports not only from third countries, but also from the countries of the European Union. By regulation, we do not have the right to limit production from the EU, although we are neither in Schengen nor in the Eurozone. But there are different mechanisms that I have seen France, for example, apply.”
According to Associate Professor Sevov, the small producer must be protected from excessive administration. The main job of a farmer is to produce. If it is small, it cannot afford to pay an accountant, a consultant, for logistics and markets. “We supposedly help him, but when we constantly increase the demands on him, more and more, he has no chance. Not that anyone specifically wants to crush him, but the little guy just can’t survive in that environment.”
There has been no zoning in our country for many years and this has created chaos harmful to agriculture. “My idea is that if you want to look at roses and lavender and get a subsidy, you will grow them in the Rose Valley. If you want to look for lavender in Dobrudja, you will, but without a subsidy. It is not by chance that we have the Cherry Institute in Kyustendil. We know that Silistra is the place for apricots. In Northern Bulgaria, by the sea, good white wines are made. On the southern slopes of the Rhodope Mountains, the reds become red. When we have zoning, it will be possible to stimulate local production. So we can develop certain areas in a certain way. We still don’t know if Bulgaria will be an agrarian country or a tourist country? And maybe we will develop heavy industry? When we answer these questions, we will have a result. Now everyone does what they want. And we have to plan.
As a university, we are still proud to have hosted the only postponed meeting of the European Commission outside of Sofia, when we were president of the Council of the EU. Then the “Europe 2030” strategy was adopted at the Agricultural University. The principle of planning must be worked on. In 1988, we were in fourth place in the world in terms of exports of vegetables and fruits. Not per capita, but as gross output. That means we’ve been able to do it and we’ve had a production volume that has put us at the top.
One second of time we cannot turn back, so the question is what can we do to move forward. If we keep repeating the same mistakes and inventing new ones, we can’t get better and develop. Convenient excuses can be found for doing nothing. But if you don’t try, there’s no chance that things will happen. Germany after the Second World War was a pile of construction waste. However, two or three generations have tightened up and screwed it up without complaining, so that today Germany is the first economy in Europe.
The idea of agricultural policies should be to bring people back into the sector. In the Eastern Rhodopes, we currently have depopulated villages. For five thousand years people lived there and now suddenly they are gone. A person loves his native land, it is difficult to part with it and he runs away when there is nothing to eat”, Assoc. Atanas Sevov thinks aloud.
Why does a scientist become a farmer?
“Many times I’ve felt, when I’m under pressure in university work, that when I come here, it’s like someone breaks my hoop. I don’t like living in the city due to the fact that when I get home, the options are to sit in this armchair or in that armchair. To go out on the terrace. And that’s it. And here, by the field, the space is very large. Green, freedom give you the feeling that there are no hoops and walls. One sets the boundaries for oneself. All my tension disappears when I come here.”
#plan #BAgro #Plovdiv
