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.”