The agricultural industry is revving up for Agritechnica 2019, the world’s leading trade fare for agricultural machinery, which begins in Hannover on Sunday.
The 2019 event anticipates 2,750 exhibitors and 450,000 visitors, and will be spread over the 23 halls and 400,000 square metres on offer at the Hannover Exhibition Grounds.
This year the overarching theme is ‘Global farming – local Responsibility’ which aims to point visitors towards a sustainable future in agriculture that will require sufficient food to be produced for a growing global population, while simultaneously conserving natural resources.
“The current model of global farming means that specific regions of the world specialise and produce particular crops to meet international demand,” says Marie Servais, Agritechnica project manager. “Technology companies have recognised and reacted to this trend, and now offer tailor-made systems and services for the respective locations in order to allow farmers to use resources efficiently. These companies are helping growers to act responsibly at a local level, where the individual farmer decides daily on measures to manage his land and crops, from tillage, sowing, nutrients and crop protection to harvesting and integrated logistics.”
National Farmers’ Day
In keeping with this year’s theme Agritechnica 2019 will be launching its inaugural National Farmers’ Day on the Thursday with the intention of establishing a new forum via which farmers and organisations from other agricultural regions around the world can exchange knowledge and experience. For its inception National Farmers Day will focus on the two farming nations of France and the UK, including a session on the challenges for farmers in a post-Brexit era.
Perhaps the major innovation at this year’s Agritechnica is the introduction of the Systems and Components Trophy. To be considered, a system or component must feature a new or improved concept that contributes significantly to development and realisation of a product. The winners will come from the list of exhibitors taking part in the Systems and Components area of Agritechnica 2019 and will run as a compliment to the existing Agritechnica Innovation awards.
“Previously we had gold and silver medals for manufacturers of, for instance, tractors but the companies in systems and components never fitted within these groups. We decided they needed their own award. We invited 17 engineers to Germany to analyse all the innovations submitted and created a shortlist of 20. We then asked all the engineers attending Agritechnica to register online, consider the shortlist and choose their favourite. In other words it’s an engineers choice. The winners will be announced on the first day of the event.”
Networking
Also for the first time this year Agritechnica offers an exclusive area for start-ups including space for networking. This is part-supported by the German Ministry of Economics, but the newly-created Agriculture Future Lab area incentivises both national and international start-ups younger than five years to be a member of this area.
“There has been demand in the past but this year we have created packages that are manageable for new businesses. By definition start-ups are young and cannot afford huge stands.”
With innovations being introduced at an exponential rate, farmers need exhibitions more than ever because. While there may be a solution for every problem a farmer might face, it can be difficult to pin down the right one.
“That is a key reason why so many farmers visit Agritechnica,” says Servias. “Finding an innovation that suits your farm is almost guaranteed if the number of innovative product launches at Agritechnica is anything to go by. The last event saw more than 300 new solutions exhibited that had never been shown anywhere before. In fact, farm machinery manufacturers regularly time their product launches to coincide with Agritechnica.”
