National Scientific Program "Intelligent Plant Breeding".

This Bulgarian National Scientific Program "Intelligent Plant Breeding" sets the following fundamental results as its objectives: Generation of new knowledge from the fundamental sciences of biology, chemistry, informatics, mathematics and physics in the plant breeding sector (various characteristics such as energy independence, accuracy and quality of the performed operations, coordination, etc. of agrorobots for growing basic agricultural crops during the implementation of various technological operations have been determined); Applicability assessment of stationary sensor networks and mobile devices (drones, robots) for collecting primary information - open (blocks) and closed (greenhouses) agricultural areas, soil, water, air and plant biodiversity; Generate data to benchmark IoT, unmanned and robotic technologies in crop production; Generating phenome data and combining it with genomic data to identify suitable genomic markers for accelerated creation of new genotypes (varieties) of important agricultural crops; Development of a multi-layered supporting infrastructure for intelligent crop management; Development of models for local and regional agricultural sensor networks to obtain sensitive real-time data; Selection of means of analysis, integration and aggregation of large data sets for forecasting and operational decision-making; Implementation of the capabilities of computer vision and various light filters to obtain information about the condition of plants and soil; Specifying suitable applications of blockchains and developing models for efficient blockchains for smart crop production; Development of artificial intelligence training algorithms (based on neural networks) for: pattern recognition and decision-making about the presence of weeds, plant disease, growth rate based on data from UAVs or robotic platforms; recognition/determination of the type of culture and the degree of its development according to satellite data; predicting the degree of development of the culture and assisting the farmer with the development of a decision option for intervention in the presence of unfavorable factors; Identification of opportunities for digitization of management processes in agriculture in accordance with the specifics and dynamism of the sector; Development of a model to increase the competitiveness of plant products by using artificial intelligence and digitalization; Creation of a model to study the effects of artificial intelligence and digitization on the characteristics of the crop sector (GVA, net income, employment, number of enterprises, attraction of young entrepreneurs, alternative activities).