Innovation from Nis Keeping Bees in Serbia and Kenya – Updated Version for 2023 Season Being Prepared

Digitization is finding its way into the world of agriculture with an ever-increasing confidence and variety of applications, so the attempts to facilitate and upgrade nearly all agrarian segments are increasingly frequent as well. Increasing productivity, testing soil quality, mitigating the impact of weather conditions, automatic irrigation, are only some of the ideas whose realization we can witness.

An innovation from Nis has found its place among these pioneering endeavors, and it pertains to the creation of a digital tool for the remote supervision of beehives through a mobile app.

Just twenty years ago, it was difficult to even imagine anything like that, but nowadays, artificial intelligence opens infinite fields of possibilities.

– Around 15 years ago, while I was still in high school, me and my classmate Obrad Stajic were trying to digitize beekeeping. However, back then, the technology was not yet sufficiently developed for us to be able to realize our ideas. It was only after I married Jelena (an AI expert) and talked to her brother Mihajlo (an IoT expert) that we realized in 2020 that the combination of our knowledge and experience could finally contribute to the creation of a unique product for beekeepers – Petar Pejic, Beehold CEO, describes his path of development for eKapija.

, As he told us, the first steps were made in 2020, namely, the laboratory-based validation of the technology and the patent protection.

– Soon afterwards, we were accepted into the Raising Starts program, where, with mentoring and financial support, in 2021, we created and tested two prototypes, one in Serbia, the other in Kenya. This year, we successfully created and sold the first 10 MVP (minimum viable product, author’s comment) systems and got very useful feedback for further improvements. We are currently working on developing an MMP version, which will be available for use at the beginning of the next beekeeping season in 2023. This system version can currently be ordered from our web page – Pejic says.

He points out that he was particularly positively surprised with the interest of Serbian beekeepers in the product and their effort and engagement in testing the products and providing useful feedback.

For Increased Efficiency of Beekeepers and Better Health of Bees

Beehold is also working on creating a digital assistant for beekeepers, based on AI. The aim is to fully eliminate the need for manual supervision of beekeeping communities, to make the beekeeper’s operations more efficient and increase the health of the bees.

Pejic reveals for eKapija that, so far, through grants and awards, they have received and invested in development slightly over EUR 180,000.

Their product reduces the need for manual supervision, which, according to Pejic, is unnecessary in 80% of the cases and only serves to upset the bees, reduces errors thanks to the automatic monitoring of the state of the beehive by the assistant, warnings and recommendations for proper beekeeping and reduces the mortality of bees poisoned by pesticides.

– We started developing our first startup in 2015. At the time, it was very challenging to develop a startup, because there was no support to development or a space like the STP, meant for startup, in Nis. Today, the situation is a lot different and, in Serbia, we have incredible opportunities for the development of startups in the earliest stages, along with mentoring and financial support through the programs of the Science-Technology Parks and the Innovation Fund – Pejic points out.

Pejic says that they are currently in the development phase and that, due to the existence of the hardware part of the system, their primary market in 2022 and 2023 will be the local market of Serbia.

– The plans are moving in two directions. One is the commercialization of the Beehold standard device and expansion to the markets of the neighboring countries. The other is the further development of the key Beehold pro system and the gathering of the necessary data for the upgrading of the AI assistant – points out Petar Pejic.

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Petar Pejić

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