The Bulgarian National Assembly has approved amendments to the Plant Protection Act, paving the way for an even faster introduction of innovative technologies in agriculture. This is reported by the website Farmer.pl.
It is noted that the country's legal framework will be supplemented by the Civil Aviation Law, which regulates the use of drones on Bulgarian farms. It is this law that contains the main security measures and risk assessments.
“The new regulation eliminates the confusion for farmers who need and use drones but cannot clearly and accurately determine how they have used pesticides because the law does not allow for such a scenario. At the same time, the Bulgarian Food Safety Authority requires that every farmer clearly and precisely declares when, according to what standards and in which areas he uses plant protection products,” said Ivo Kumanov, director of the international precision farming group NIK.
The use of drones in precision agriculture brings many advantages, as practice in Japan and Switzerland has shown. And although new technologies are increasingly being integrated into crop protection practices, experts agree that legislation in the EU has not kept pace with technological advances.
The current plant protection law only regulates spraying methods from the air and from the ground, but not drones.
Bulgaria had to decide whether to wait for a European regulation on the sustainable use of pesticides, which was first postponed and then taken off the agenda after protests from farmers across Europe.
The most important changes include the mandatory documentation of each spraying operation, indicating the conditions, location, date and time of application and the quantity used. Drone operators must submit this documentation to the relevant regional food safety authority.
Source: Ukragroconsult (Ukraine)
