Welcome Message from the President
We are living in a fast-changing world, where many challenges exist in the agricultural sector with respect to providing technical solutions. It is therefore a privilege to be the president of CIGR for the period 2009–2010 and have the opportunity to participate in important decision-making within the CIGR working sphere.
The historical development of CIGR can be briefly outlined as follows. Since the foundation of CIGR in 1930, there have been dramatic improvements in the quality of technical solutions for problems in agriculture, where manual work and horse-driven implements were replaced by machines such as tractors, combines, and milking machines. Mechanization and automation in the agriculture sector has been very rapid with respect to minimization of manpower. Moreover, public expectations regarding methods of production and the end products of agriculture have changed over time.
The agricultural evolution in the developing and developed countries has been different. In developing countries like Bangladesh, the production conditions were steady until the introduction of mechanized cultivation in the 1950s. However, in the 1970s, the changes in cropping pattern and intensity created a demand for mechanized irrigation, tillage, pest management, and post-harvest processing of crops. The need for machinery for the production and post-harvest processing of crops has increased significantly in the developing worlds in recent times. However, the agricultural machinery sector has a potential to grow even faster and has the ability to contribute substantially to the employment of people. The machineries being used in the agriculture sector in the developing world are still small, less efficient, and very expensive. It is therefore a challenge to make these technologies more efficient and affordable and to develop better management systems.
Until the middle of the 20th century, the overall goal of the agricultural sector in the developed world has been to increase the production every year. This has been achieved by methods such as optimization of the use of irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides and increasing of the area of arable land. In the 1960s and 1970s, there was an increasing concern about the impact of agricultural production on the environment and animal welfare, and the term ‘Sustainable Agriculture’ was introduced and began to be frequently used. It was recognized that production principles should take into account not only an increase in production but also minimization of the negative impacts on the environment and animal welfare. Therefore, several regulations were introduced in the European Union (EU), such as those limiting the animal production level [e.g. the number of pigs (animal units) per unit of arable land and pen space required per pig], with a view to controlling environmental pollution and improving animal welfare. Increased pressure from consumers to provide agricultural products grown without the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and imported feed protein has resulted in an increasing interest in products obtained from organic farming. However, worldwide concern about having sufficient food supply has maintained the focus on high levels of animal production with optimal use of natural resources. At the same time, an increasing part of he arable land is being used for purposes other than food production as e.g. crops for energy production and hence reduced the land available for food production for humans.
Surplus production of animal products in some regions of the world, like the EU, led in 1988 to regulation of the use of arable land on a freely basis to limit the use of fertilizers and pesticides. From 1992, the EU regulations demanded that 15% of the arable land should lie fallow and since the percentages again has been regulated down to zero.
Farmers, manufacturers, researchers, and other groups of individuals in the agricultural sector like the CIGR are forced to cope with new demands in the fast changing production situations caused by regional regulations, public opinion or new technical solutions.
One of the biggest challenges in the coming decades will be to implement the present day knowledge on robotics, especially exploring the possible benefits of the global positioning system (GPS). Although many examples of application of robotics worldwide can be cited, I wish to only mention an example from my own region. Robotics is already being widely applied in dairy cow production facilities in some countries. In the Netherlands, with 1.4 million dairy cows on a total of 20,000 farms, more than 700 herds are operated by automatic milking systems (AMSs). In Denmark, in 2008, 12% of the 0.6 million dairy cows were milked by the AMS, which is the highest percentage in the world, and AMS is still being implemented. The global interest in AMS is depending very much on the labour cost and it is a good example of how economical considerations have an impact on the implementation of new techniques. Another challenge is control of the animal production facilities where advanced technical solutions are investigated and used, as e.g. technologies for reducing environmental impact of gases, particles, and odour by employing air scrubbers, bioenergy, and recycling. Weed control is another progressing field in robotics, where the crops and weeds can be identified online by advanced sensors that can direct harrow teeth and pesticide sprayers towards single plants or areas infected by weeds. With GPS and digital infrastructure, it is possible to identify the exact location of a particular part in the field, which increases the possibilities of various applications. The application of robotics and the use of intelligent implements arenew technologies that offer challenges to all 7 CIGR Sections.
There will be new challenges in the future that cannot be predicted at present and it is the good reason, why it is a big challenge for me to work for CIGR
Prof. Søren Pedersen
President of CIGR
