Jointly preparing the conditions in the agricultural and connected sectors in the BSB area for the digital transformation (BSB Smart Farming)

The main objective of the project is to develop and implement a highly replicable and transferable model for preparing the conditions for ensuring the digital transformation in agriculture and connected sectors in the area – a process intensively unfold across the world. It encompasses actions to be deployed in 6 partner countries with partial outputs to be made accessible for 2 more countries. It will contribute to foster a significant change in the preparedness of the agricultural and connected sectors in the BSB area for the digital transformation, improving the capacities of the farming community, academia, public institutions, industry actors and entrepreneurs for cross-border trade opportunities in order to meet the common territorial challenges related to the lagging behind in the modernisation in the agricultural and connected sectors. It supports sweeping away some of the main Black sea basin countries demerits related to the upcoming digital transformation, boosting entrepreneurship with a well-planned and relevant activities to a number of challenges and opportunities arising from the main territorial running processes in three dimensions. The first dimension is related to the support for changing the conditions for the modernization of the agriculture and connected sectors in the area as smart digital farming is listed as the highest-ranking technology opportunity in terms of its expected positive impact. The second dimension is related to the challenges before the main driver of economy and local people welfare – the SMEs in the region. The project improves stably the conditions for supporting the SME’s in the regions operating in the agriculture and connected sectors to stay in line with the leading industrial tendencies and fertilizes the grounds for stemming new ventures in the most promising new industrial trends and needs with a strong cross-border effect, thus answering the regional disparities. The project ensures a sustainable territory for further supporting the knowledge and ventures exchanges between the countries at different levels of deployment of the innovative SMEs’ ecosystems. The third dimension is answering the socio-economic challenges in the area – the brain and skill drain and the brain waste, the migration flows, the regional disparities related to urbanization and rural areas depopulation. The project takes into consideration these trends and answers them offering a model for improving the opportunity high-skilled people to become interested in farming, or working with farmers, supporting the retention of young people in their birthplaces, creating and nourishing opportunities for start-ups as a much desired and needed alternative against the low-skilled seasonal or farmers’ fields work. The project also reacts to the depopulation and ageing processes and the unplanned migration pressure unfolding opportunities for the usage of ICT skills and competencies even in the most underdeveloped areas in the BSB area.