Soil-X-Change Presented at the National AKIS Workshop in Bulgaria

The Soil-X-Change project was among the five Horizon Europe projects presented during the National Workshop on the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS), held on 15–16 October 2025 in Hisarya, Bulgaria. The event was organised by the National Agricultural Advisory Service (NAAS) and focused on strengthening advisory services for sustainable soil management, plant protection, and adaptation and mitigation to climate change.

During the workshop, a representative from the Ministry of Agriculture introduced the second stage of the application process for Operational Groups (OGs) under the CAP Strategic Plan and presented the Ministry’s ongoing actions to support the development of the AKIS in Bulgaria.

The event encouraged a lively discussion among farmers, researchers, and advisors on how to cooperate more effectively and exchange innovations in practice.

Ivanka Todorova from NAAS presented the Soil-X-Change project, which connects Operational Groups from different European countries to exchange experience and knowledge on soil health. She announced that by the end of November, the project will publish the results of a survey among farmers about their attitudes towards adopting innovative and sustainable soil practices. So far, 22 out of 60 practical abstracts have been prepared, and translations into partner languages are in progress.

Georgi Stoyanov, partner from the Bulgarian OG Земя за бъдещето (“Soil for the Future”), shared the group’s experience and challenges in setting up their OG, which has now become one of the good examples in the EU for digitalisation and soil monitoring.

Ivanka Todorova also introduced the Soil-X-Change Dashboard, available on the project website – a user-friendly tool acting as a search engine for good practices across Europe, with different filters and parameters related to soil management.

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