Niculae equips tractors with 300,000-euro GPS technology

Ioan Niculae, owner of the Interagro group, which operates in the agricultural sector, has invested around 300,000 euros in GPS technology for its 50-tractor fleet in view of increased efficiency. "All our tractors are now equipped with GPS technology in view of working the land more efficiently. This will keep us from ploughing the same furrow twice and from parcels of land being left unploughed," said Sorin Dogaru, manager of the farming division of Interagro, which makes 500 million euros in revenues.

As of May, the company will also set up five GPSes in various Interagro farms in order to improve reception of the satellite signal. Then five tractors will be equipped with GPSes enabling them to work the land without the help of a driver, having a set trajectory. The company will not dispense with tractor drivers, despite using GPS.

"Americans are not doing it, either, although they use GPS. Someone needs to be in the cab to deal with anything that might go wrong. Anyway, the fact that we replaced some of our tractors with 600-HP ones resulted in personnel cuts, with one such tractor replacing six tractor drivers."