14th AGRO ARCA Was Successfully Held in Prelog Croatia
AGRO ARCA 2023 Report
The 14th International Fair on Innovation in Agriculture, Food Industry and Agricultural Machinery AGRO ARCA 2023 was held May 12 – 14, 2023 in the City of Prelog, organized by the Croatian Union of Innovators and the City of Prelog.
This year the picturesque Marina Beach of Prelog hosted the exhibition, gathering together over 100 exhibitors from 8 countries, giving special attention to innovative, green and energy-efficient, competitive technologies in agriculture, food production, and processing.
In addition to innovations in agriculture, local family-run and agritourism farms in the Medjimurje county region and the surroundings were given the opportunity to present their products.
AGRO ARCA took place under the auspices of the Ministry of Science and Education, Ministry of Agriculture, and Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development, while the partners were the Faculty of Agriculture, HAMAG-BICRO, and Chamber of Crafts of Medjimurje County.
The co-organizers were the Croatian Association of Technical Culture and IFIA (International Federation of Associations of Innovators) and the fair was also sponsored by many local companies.
As part of the opening ceremony, the audience was greeted by Prof. Dr. Sc. Miljenko Simpraga, President of the Croatian Union of Innovators, and Mr. Zdravko Tušek, State Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, pointed out that: “The Ministry of Agriculture cooperates with the academic community and other stakeholders in research, development, and transfer of knowledge in the field of various modern innovative technologies that will enable more efficient and sustainable agriculture in an environment that is changing dramatically.“
Alongside the fair, a series of accompanying events took place as well.
Several workshops were held for students in grades 6-8 on the topic: “Bacteria that live in the soil and are necessary for cultures to grow” in cooperation with the Ruđer Bošković Institute. At the same time, STEM workshops on the basics of LegoWeDo robotics were held, while the most popular were the creative workshops for kindergarten kids.
An Innovation Forum was held on the topic: “New skills in agriculture”, while on the second day a panel discussion on the “Renewable energy sources in the service of successful agricultural farms” took place with the lecture of the State Institute for Intellectual Property “Use of intellectual property in the business of trades and OPGs”.
At the fair, 13 gold medals, 12 silver, and 29 bronze medals were awarded in the category of junior and senior innovators, as well as a special IFIA medal won by Ivan Bracic’s company PIP d.o.o. with the innovation “Apibonum IB for bee colony hygiene”, while the best innovation of the AGRO ARCA 2023 fair was declared innovation „WOOLEE fertilizer and repellent from raw wool“ created by the innovator Dragica Jerkov.