Development of the AgTech sector by the forces of business and agricultural higher educational institutions

Cooperation with the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine has brought its first positive results. During the current year, the Mechanical and Technological Faculty of this higher agricultural educational institution carried out not only preparation for the introduction of the component of the discipline «Precision Farming System» of the Soft.Farm information system into the educational process, but also passed the first training for users of our web service.

Both teachers and students of the Master's degree program took an active part in this process. The implementation was started by the rector of the university Stanislav Nikolaenko. A lot of work has been done to master the software that actually works in production and we are pleased to announce that upon its completion the first 19 master's degrees in agricultural engineering became certified specialists in the operation and implementation of the Soft.Farm system at the enterprises of the agro-industrial complex of Ukraine.

It should be noted that not only users have become certified. The teaching staff who underwent the training received the title of trainers of the Soft.Farm information system and now, with new knowledge, will train highly qualified specialists to popularize the latest IT technologies in the agricultural industry.

Practical testing of the system in the field was carried out on the basis of the EP NUBiP of Ukraine «Agronomic Experimental Station» under the guidance of its director Yuri Rosamakha. The IT component of the implementation of the system was provided by the Faculty of Information Technologies, which, like the Faculty of Mechanics and Technology, stood at the origins of cooperation.

Our team expresses its deep gratitude to the Dean of the Faculty of Mechanics and Technology V.V.Bratishko, as well as to the teachers of the Department of Agricultural Machines and Systems Engineering named after acad. Vasilenko P.M. — Humenyuk Yuriy, Aniskevych Leonid, Rosamakha Yuriy, Vechera Oleh for cooperation and interest in our web service, and the Dean of the Faculty of Information Technologies, Mrs. Olena Glazunova, for her help in implementing the system. We are always open to new proposals that will contribute to the development of innovative capabilities of the Soft.Farm software product for the automation of agricultural enterprises and are ready to move further in this direction.