It is called “The World´s Leading Trade Fair”, the Agritechnica, organized every two years on the “world’s largest exhibition grounds” in Hanover, Germany. Under the heading “green productivity” 2,800 German and international exhibitors presented their products and innovations in the agricultural sector and attracted almost half a million visitors from 12 to 18 November 2023. Managing Director Jürgen Ritter visited the event on behalf of the DCZ.
This marked the first time since 2019 that the Agritechnica was held, since the previous event had to be cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In 27 halls key areas like tractors, various agricultural machinery, plant protection, landscape management, robotics, consulting and many more, were displayed or addressed in information booths.
In presentations and info corners renowned agricultural companies as well as start-ups introduced technical innovations and approaches to the transformation of agriculture and food systems, sustainable agriculture and “green productivity”, addressing both key issues of a future agriculture: Productivity to ensure food security for a growing population and protecting natural resources at the same time in order to secure a healthy environment and food for future generations.
Besides inspiring machinery and informative presentations the Agritechnica also provides a platform for seminars as well as for meeting the people behind the websites which we have been familiar with for a long time. The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture supported digitalization of agriculture by establishing 14 Digital Experimental Fields at various locations in Germany, each of them dedicated to a different topic of the agricultural industry. Videos of all of these fields are available on the topical DCZ website on Smart Agriculture introducing digital technologies in various areas from viticulture to dairy farms and digital value chains.
“Meet Chinese Young Generation of Professional Farmers & 2nd Sino-German Agricultural Young Champions Forum”, organized by DLG, provided a review of a previous project under the BMEL’s Bilateral Cooperation Program. In their opening addresses, Wei Zhenglin of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs (MARA) and Svenja Fuhrmann, Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), reviewed the achievements of the “Sino-German Agricultural Exchange Program” and its contributions to sustainable agriculture and food security amid global challenges. Presentations and introductions by German and Chinese participants in the previous cooperation project presented examples and experiences in their personal exchanges with the German and Chinese young experts.
The Agritechnica, organized every two years, is a fair for agricultural machinery. At the same time, it provides a platform for professional, technical, political and personal exchanges and constitutes an important part of international cooperations in the field of agriculture. Along these lines, the event also provided an opportunity for informal exchange between the DCZ and representatives from BMEL, MARA, GFA, and DLG to discuss the future direction and work of the DCZ as an important platform of agricultural cooperation between Germany and China.
Alternating with Agritechnica, the EUROTIER fair will be organized in 2024 in Hanover, and certainly will provide a similar platform for technical and professional meetings and exchanges.
