Digital tools for an organic farm
Information and Communication Technologies, like the ones chosen by Suzana, are long seen as drivers of rural development and are accelerating progress towards gender equality.
©Suzana Dimitrievska
Suzana Dimitrievska is an organic farmer in North Macedonia. Coming from a line of strong, well-educated women, she has always been comfortable embracing new technology. She is using Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) to increase the efficiency of her family farm.
Several years ago, she bought a farm management software that enabled her to better plan and monitor crops, minimize labour costs and spend less on gas and organic fertilizer, thereby raising her profits.
After bagging a contract with a Swiss company in 2017, Suzana thought she could do all the work with seasonal labour. However, as the demand grew, she realized the need for and benefit of an automated solution that could control several different processes at the same time.
Suzana, with support from a consultant and the Swiss company, was able to prepare a cost-benefit analysis of manual work versus using an automatic sorter. They identified an optical colour sorter machine that would be able to detect and sort over 123 different types of crops, herbs and agricultural products by their size, colour and form. “With a loan from the bank, she invested in the optical photo selector. Even though the price tag was hefty at 75 000 Euros, I am now able to easily select and pack beans at the same time meeting the quality standards of my customers,” says Suzana.