International women’s day – Interview with farmer Desislava
"My name is Desislava, I'm 41 years old and from Varna, Bulgaria. By profession, I am an agronomist and have been working for 20 years in our family company, founded by my father.
Initially, I was involved in administration, but for the past 12 years, I have been responsible for production. We cultivate 1800 hectares in the region of Provadia, 45 km from Varna.
The main crops we grow are wheat, barley, sunflower, and corn. Our farm has a modern machinery park and equipment for soil cultivation.
To be honest, I never thought that agriculture was my calling. In the years when my father was actively working, he always took me with him and showed me all the activities, how the crops were developing, what diseases they suffered from, and how they were treated. This was the period when many farms were being renovated, and many new technologies were being introduced. Gradually, I became curious about the whole process and developed a love for the land, seeing an opportunity for development in this area.
My favorite machines are two: the self-propelled sprayer, which I had been dreaming of having on our farm for many years, and it happened in 2023 and the Kverneland Exacta TL GEOSPREAD fertilizer spreader which was also a dream come true for me because by applying variable rate fertilization, we managed to reduce fertilizer costs and at the same time protect the soil from excessive nitrogen.
Being a woman in agriculture is a challenge for me because I have to simultaneously be a wife, a mother, a manager... but my feminine intuition helped me build a functioning structure in this "male" business, which satisfies me."