Success story

The Combined Cultivating Machine that Operates in a Single Field Crossing

The Srma-Zip company from Sivac (Kula) has developed several prototypes of the “Combined cultivating machine” (with conventional plows and reversible plows), that during a single crossing of the agricultural field performs the following: plows it, flattens and stabilizes the soil surface, scatters fertilizer and sows the land. At the same time, this machine enables one to save energy, time and costs associated with cultivation.

After careful analysis of methods in agricultural soil cultivation and sowing, innovator Stanko Mandić, came up with a way to reduce the high costs associated with field crops production.  Through the Innovation Fund’s Mini Grants Program, Mr. Mandic developed a new technical solution: the Combined cultivating machine, which consumes little power and can be paired with existing plows. The plowing tractor does not need to cross the field multiple times to perform cultivation, instead everything is conducted simultaneously during the first crossing of the field, and in turn the Combined cultivating machine performs cultivation and sowing with minimum energy consumption. The machine has been patented in Serbia and protected in the European Patent Office.

Testing of the Combined cultivating machine in real conditions has demonstrated that using Mr. Mandić’s machine compared to standard cultivating and sewing machines, per 1 hectare of plowing field, savings of around EUR 100 and significantly higher crop yield are achieved. Forecasted calculations shows that the use of the Combined cultivating machine per 100 ha of land can save costs of up to a season’s labor. The calculations also show that the machine pays for itself in a single season’s work, when taking into account the cost savings (100e/ha) and increased yield (100e/ha).

“The innovation behind Combined cultivating machine is the achieved savings and increases in crop yield, compared to the traditional way of cultivation and reduced cultivation.”, stated Stanko Mandic, director of Srma-Zip. He added: “Our project is supported by experts from the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad, and there is a feasibility study about the machine called: “The development of combined tractors system for land cultivation in a single crossing”. Also, the Innovation Center of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade has supported the project with a preparation of technical documentation for the mass production of Combined cultivating machines. “

Combined cultivating machine has drawn interest from companies across the world: Great Britain, USA, India, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia, however according to Mr. Mandic this project deserves serious attention first of all from the Government of Serbia for the potential this product can contribute to the country’s development of industry, agriculture, employment, and exports of finished products.