Bulgaria joins AnaEE !

We are glad to announce that Bulgaria, represented by the Ministry of Education and Science, officially expressed their will to join AnaEE as a founding member.
 
Bulgaria is a largely mountainous country, located in South East Europe, near the Black Sea. More than two-thirds of Bulgaria’s territory is plains and hills, with the Balkan and Rhodope Mountain ranges. Being at the meeting point of Mediterranean and continental air masses combined with the barrier effect of its mountains, Bulgaria has a varied and changeable climate.  Cropland, woodland, and forest ecosystems are the most spread in the country followed by grasslands and urban ecosystems.
 

The AnaEE Bulgarian National Node will be built upon the project RINA, Research Infrastructure and Innovation in Agriculture and Food. RINA is part of the Bulgaria National Road Map for Research Infrastructure since 2017. The Consortium was established between the Academy of Agriculture, the Thracian University (Stara Zagora), the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency, the Agricultural University (Plovdiv) and the University of Forestry (Sofia).


The National Research Infrastructure upgraded the currently existing scientific and servicing units in 4 experimental research complexes:
1) for sustainable management of soil and water resources; definition of environmental risks and threats;
2) for genetic, metabolic and phenotypic research;
3) for food and beverage research;
4) for agro-information, agro-management and development of rural areas
 
The research infrastructure aims at increasing sustainability of agricultural sector and reducing the harmful effects on the environment by creating and introducing new Bulgarian varieties and breeds on farm animals; enhance sustainable management of freshwater and marine resources and aquaculture; develop innovative technologies for obtaining ecologically clean, functional foods and beverages of plant and animal origin; support a sustainable bio-economy with the creation of new bio-based products.
 
Bulgarian platforms have a long-term experience in plant and soils analysis, as well as monitoring crop stress and nutrient availability in laboratory, greenhouse and field conditions. They will bring to AnaEE their expertise in:
 (1) Open air platforms: Use of biochar for improving soil properties and plant nutrient status; MTO observations and measurement of water stress in plants; long-term field experiments at the research institutes of the Academy of Agriculture designed to establish the effect of crop rotation, tillage, residue management and cover crops in conservation agriculture;  long-term experiments with various crops to establish the impacts of mineral fertilization and monoculture on agroecosystems; conventional and organic farming with cereals in crop rotation with legumes in four geographically remote locations (organic and conventional fields in each location) designed to establish impacts of different agricultural practices and agro-meteorological factors on biodiversity and ecosystem services;
(2) Analytical platforms: Soil and plant analyses; Genomics and metabolomics analyses;
(3) Mobile platforms: Physiological investigations of plants/canopy; Remote sensing of soil properties and crop nutrient performance for precision agriculture.