CIGR Newsletter No 44

++ CIGR NEWS ++ CIGR NEWS ++ CIGR NEWS ++

NEWS FROM THE PRESIDIUM

Official Opening Ceremony of the CIGR General Secretariat on Monday, 31st August in the University Club, Bonn, Germany.

The ceremony was organized as an official event to mark the move of the General Secretariat from the Agricultural Research Station in Merelbeke/Belgium to the Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Bonn. The event was opened by the President of CIGR, Prof. Dr. Osamu Kitani (see below for his speech). The Pro-Rector of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn, Prof. Dr. Willi Hirdt, also gave a welcoming address, which was impressively held in German, French and English. With his speech he marked the University out as an institution with a highly cosmopolitan character. He described it as a pleasure for Bonn University to be the host of the CIGR General Secretariat.

CIGR officials during the opening ceremony of the General Secretariat in front of the Department of Agricultural Engineering of the University of Bonn

The first words of greeting were given by Mrs. Paß-Weingartz, the Deputy Mayor of Bonn. She underlined that Non-Governmental Organizations from all over the world are always welcome in Bonn, so that she was pleased for the GS to come here.

Karl-Wilhelm Schulze-Weslarn, a section head at the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry, pointed out in his welcome that these days Agricultural Engineering is becoming increasingly important for the protection of the environment so that, because of Germany's leading role in environmental protection, the new location of the GS is well-chosen.

Prof. Dr. Jaime Ortiz-Cañavate, President of the European Society of Agricultural Engineers (EurAgEng), underlined the role of EurAgEng as a regional association in which each country can contribute its part to maintaining a relationship that is beneficial for all members and for Agricultural Engineering, both for its role within Europe and for its projection to the rest of the world. EurAgEng wants to strongly support the role and promotion of CIGR at a world level.

Prof. Dr. El Houssine Bartali as representative of the African Associations of Agricultural Engineering called the transfer of the GS to Bonn especially advantageous because of its location within the University of Bonn, which is recognized as having dedicated and highly qualified people to support and foster CIGR activities. He hopes that CIGR can help to improve the co-operation between African countries and other member countries of CIGR.

Ir. Jean Claude Souty, President of the French Association for Agricultural Engineering (AFGR), spoke about the close links between AFGR and CIGR in the past and also the present. AFGR has supported the expansion of CIGR, and particularly the translation of the Newsletter into French, so as to disseminate CIGR Newsletter information to French speaking countries, especially in Africa.

Dr. Theodor Friedrich of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO/AGSE) emphasized that the contribution made by Agricultural Engineering to food production has been taken for granted, so that it has lost some public and political interest. But still problems are increasing, particularly in the less developed countries of Africa. The formation of a strategic alliance between CIGR and the FAO is the only way of meeting the huge challenge of global co-operation in Agricultural Engineering.

The keynote speech was held by Director Dr. Ir. Aad Jongebreur from the Dutch Instituut voor Milieu- en Agritechniek (IMAG-DLO), who was confident in his predictions for future trends in international agricultural engineering. One of his main themes was "Since the need for innovation of products, processes and systems is growing, knowledge generation and technology development, as well as networking with other concerned parties, and design and redesign, play a crucial role in the innovation process. Research on sustainable systems requires more support from the agricultural engineering field. Application of new and emerging technologies (e.g. micro-electronics, mechatronics, information technology) requires a key role for agricultural engineers. Sustainable technology and technique imply an open mind and strong co-operation with other relevant disciplines."

A particularly happy part of the event was the giving of honours to longstanding CIGR members. Prof. Dr. Osamu Kitani and Prof. Dr. Bill Stout, incoming President of CIGR, jointly bestowed the honours.

Frank Lunn, secretary of CIGR for more than eight years, was awarded an honorary membership for the personal commitment demonstrated by his work.

The past Secretary-General, Prof. Dr. Jan Daelemans, had already been honoured for his outstanding achievements with the title 'Honorary President' at the XIII. CIGR World Congress in Rabat.

Prof. Dr. Karl-Hans Kromer of the Institute of Agricultural Engineering in Bonn was honoured for his success in attracting the General Secretariat of CIGR to Germany. To reward his support for CIGR he received a plaque.

Mrs. Paß-Weingartz, Vice Mayor of Bonn; Prof. Dr. Bill Stout, incoming President of CIGR; Prof. Dr. Osamu Kitani, Presient of CIGR; Prof. Dr. Willi Hirdt, Prorector of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität, Bonn and Prof. Dr. Peter Schulze Lammers, Secretary General of CIGR.

After the official ceremony the Presidium of CIGR and the President of EurAgEng were invited to a reception given by Dr. Veiter, Permanent Parliament Secretary at the German Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Forestry.

All participants were given the opportunity to visit the Federal Parliament building and the Institute of Agricultural Engineering at Bonn University.

The tour through the parliament building was organized superbly by the visitors' department of the parliament. Dr. Jäger told the story of the construction of the building with interest and humour and included some surprising details. His excellent English gave all participants the opportunity to ask questions.

The tour through the Institute of Agricultural Engineering was organized by Prof. Dr. Karl-Hans Kromer. The guests were introduced to the teaching, research, lab and workshop facilities of the Department. Particular interest was generated by one of the Institute's major projects, ‚the development of an electronic nose".

Christian v. Arnim, CIGR secretary

Address of the President at the Opening Ceremony of the new CIGR General-Secretariat in Bonn

Thank you, Prof. Schulze Lammers, for your introduction. Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of CIGR I would like to express my hearty welcome and thanks to you attending this ceremony. I am especially grateful to Mrs. Pass-Weingartz, Vice Mayor of the City of Bonn, Magnifizenz, Prorektor Prof. Dr. Hirdt of the University of Bonn, and Ministerialdirigent Dr. Schulze-Weslarn as well as other members of the Agricultural Engineering Branch of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry.

I extend my gratitudes also to the Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture and his faculty members of the University of Bonn, the Honorary Presidents of CIGR, the Executive Board members, the Section Chairmen and the Section Board members as well as the former Secretary-General and Secretary of CIGR in Merelbeke, Belgium.

I express my deep thanks to our guests from abroad; the President and Past-Presidents of the European Society of Agricultural Engineering, the representatives from the American Society of Agricultural Engineers and the African Agricultural Engineering societies, President of the French Association of Agricultural Engineering, representatives from the Max-Eyth-Gesellschaft Agrartechnik im VDI and the Director of IMAG/DLO as todays key note speaker, the scientists, professors and researchers in agricultural engineering from Belgium, France, Hungary, Italy, Japan, The Netherlands and Spain, and delegates from the German institutions of the universities of Göttingen/Vechta, Giessen, München/Weihenstephan, Osnabrück, Stuttgart/Hohenheim, Hannover and the Vice President of the Federal Agricultural Research Center as well as the Director of Agrartechnik Potsdam-Bornim, ATB, the representatives of the German Agricultural Association, DLG and the German Contracting Agency for Agricultural Machinery.

Last but not least, I would express sincere gratitude to the ladies accompanying the representatives here who support CIGR day by day.

CIGR has been a worldwide networking organization in agricultural engineering since it was established in 1930 in Liège, Belgium. The General-Secretariat of CIGR has been always the center and headquarters of the global activities of CIGR. It was located in France for a long time and then moved to Belgium 9 years ago. Both the French and the Belgium governments as well as many people in these two countries strongly supported the General-Secretariat. The CIGR General Secretariat has now moved to Bonn, Germany here. I am very much pleased that it has located again in the center of Europe where good infrastructure and excellent personnel are provided. I am convinced that CIGR will develop further with this powerful General Secretariat.

CIGR has been active in the international activities for 68 years. Its activities were broadened after the World Congress in Milan in 1994. CIGR is working to develop world agriculture through engineering. More than half of the world population lives on agriculture to supply daily food for more than 5 billion people. In the developed countries, economic weight of agriculture has been decreasing. If we take, however, a global view, agriculture is the largest industry and will remain so in the coming century.

Agriculture is one of the few industries which, in principle, could create resources continuously from the nature in a sustainable way. Continuity or sustainability is the very basis to secure "global co-prosperity over many generations of mankind" which will be the common objective of human being. In this sense, agriculture is vitally important. Let me cite a few words from the 9th symphony of Beethoven who was born in this city. It says that we are always drinking big pleasure or happiness from the nature, in German; "Freude trinken alle Wesen an den Brüsten der Natur".

We, agricultural engineers have been applying scientific principles to the optimal conversion of natural resources into agricultural land, machinery, structure, processes and systems for the benefit of mankind. Taking machinery for example, it multiplies a tiny power of only 0.07kW of a farmer into 70kW power of a tractor. This enables him to produce food several hundreds times larger than he could produce manually. Processing technology reduced food loss and added much more values to agricultural products than they originally have. The role of agricultural engineering is increasing towards the new century. Agriculture will have to supply not only food and feed but also other materials such as bio-fuels, organic feedstocks for the second industries and even medical ingredients. New technology is now expected to produce more food, feed and industrial feedstocks with less environmental load to agriculture.

CIGR covers the major fields of agricultural engineering like soil and water, machinery and its management, farm structures and processing as well as emerging technological fields by the 6 Technical Sections. Information systems, aquaculture, environmental technology for plant and animal production, energy and biomass engineering are tried to be covered by the Working Group activities and the CIGR handbook project. They will play more and more important roles in the future. Both traditional and new technologies are important to supply enough food for the increasing world population and to alternate the decreasing fossil resources. They are especially important in the developing regions of the world where demand for food and feedstocks will be boosting in parallel with the population growth and rise of living standard.

CIGR is composed of the regional and national societies as well as individual members. Regional societies like EurAgEng and ASAE are the core members of CIGR. National societies have been steadily and strongly supporting CIGR in terms of both activity and finance. The members are now increasing. We welcomed Bangladesh, Iran and Mexico to join us as new members this year. I do hope that CIGR will continuously offer its service to its members through various congresses, symposia, delivery of newsletters, issuing the handbooks and the electronic journals.

In the opening ceremony of the new General-Secretariat, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the organizations and people who contributed much to the establishment of the General-Secretariat, especially Prof. Kromer of the University of Bonn, Mrs. Pass-Weingartz of the City of Bonn and Dr. Schulze-Weslarn of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Forestry.


I sincerely hope that all the distinguished attendants here will continuously support the development of CIGR in the future. Thank you for your attention.

Prof. Dr. Osamu Kitani, President of CIGR

Short Report from the Executive Board Meeting in Oslo

The Executive Board Meeting was held in the Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel in Oslo on August 29, 1998 just after the EurAgEng Conference in Oslo.

The transfer of the General Secretariat from Belgium to Germany was reported at first and the schedule of the opening ceremony of the new General Secretariat in Bonn was confirmed. The Editorial Board of the Electronic Journals was approved. The first paper will be published soon on the network after scrutinized by the referees.

The Working Groups will be reorganized based on the report of the Working Group Coordinator, Prof. Abeels. The Secretary-General will send a letter to the non-active Working Group Chairs and ask them to send the actual plans of their activities in the future. If he does not get the answer by the end of November, the Working Group will be terminated. The copy of the letters will be sent to the relevant Section Chairs.

The budget of 1999 was decided on the basis of the same fee level of this year.

Manuscripts of the CIGR Agricultural Engineering Handbook have already been sent to the publisher, ASAE. ASAE will publish it in the coming December.

CIGR Electronic Network was strengthened by opening a new Website in UK. Co-operation with FAO network is being developed. Prof. Egil Berge asked for someone to take over his responsibilities for CIGR Web Service. The Executive Board confirmed Prof. Axel Munack, Federal Research Station for Agriculture, Germany, to be in charge from 1999.

The preparation of the Word Memorial Congress in 2000 in Tsukuba, Japan is going on. The first announcement was distributed in Rabat last February and in Oslo also. The World Congress in 2002 will be held in Chicago, USA. The Executive Board admitted the possibility to plan a World Symposium in the year 2004.

Discussions on the present Statutes led the conclusion of drafting the new statutes by the next Executive Board Meeting in Toronto in July 1999. A task force to make a draft was organized.

Prof. Dr. Osamu Kitani, President of CIGR

NEWS FROM THE SECTIONS AND WORKING GROUPS

The new Section Chairmen and their addresses are as follows (effective 1 Jan 1999):

Section I: Land & Water Use: Prof. Luis Santos Pereira, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Dep. Engenharia Rural, Tapada da Ajuda, P-1399 Lisbon, Portugal.

E-mail: lspereira@isa.utl.pt

Section II: Farm Buildings, Equipment, Structures & Environment: Ir. Jan Voermans, Research Station for Pig Husbandry, P. O.Box 83 - Lunerkampweg 7, NL-5240 AB Rosmalen, The Netherlands.

E-mail: j.a.m.voermans@pv.agro.nl

Section III: Equipment Engineering For Plant Production: Prof. El Hassan Bourarach, Institut Agronomique et Veterinaire (IAV) Hassan II, Dép. Mach. Agric., B. P. 6202 Rabat-Instituts, Rabat, Morocco.

Section IV: Rural Electricity & Other Energy Sources: Prof. Abdallalh Ramdani, I. A. V. Hassan II, Dept. Agricultural Engineering, B.P. 6202, Rabat Instituts, Rabat, Morocco.

E-mail: ramdani@magrebnet.net.ma

Section V: Management, Ergonomics and System Engineering: Prof. Tarmo Luoma, Work Efficiency Institute, P.O.Box 28, Melkonkatu 16A, FIN-00211 Helsinki, Finland.

E-mail: tarmo.luoma@tts.fi

Section VI: Processing: Prof. Margarita Ruiz Altisent, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Dep. Ingenieria Rural, Calle El Greco, E-28040 Madrid, Spain.

E-mail: mruiz@iru.etsia.upm.es

Organizing Meeting, WG Information Systems

The organizing meeting of the CIGR Working Group on Information Systems was held on June 16, 1998 in Athens, Greece at the Divani Caravel Hotel. Prof. Nick Sigrimis of the Department for Agricultural Engineering, Agricultural University of Athens chaired this organizing meeting. It was held during the IFAC workshop, June 14-17 in Athens.

Agenda items:

  1. Name, scope and breadth of the WG
  2. Interactions, liaison and control with existing sections
  3. Liaison with IFAC, ASAE, EUNITA, EurAgEng, EFITA
  4. Opinions recorded about the suitability of a new section
  5. Form sub-groups to deal with specific subjects (towards a final proposal)
  6. Organization of WG E-mail conferences,
  7. WG-sponsored sessions during other meetings (until 2000).

The Executive Board of CIGR has recommended the formation of a new WG at its meeting at the 13th International Congress in Rabat, Morocco, 1998. Information systems has become more and more of a key component in agricultural engineering activities like land and water, mechanization, climate control, structures and processing. Even though information systems is a part of the existing Sections of CIGR, it is felt that with the importance of this topic it would benefit CIGR and ist members to have a separate WG. If after two years there is adequate justification, the WG may be considered as a new Section.

If you have questions or comments about the WG on Information Systems please contact: Prof. Richard Hegg, USDA-CSREES, 1400 Independence Ave, SW, Stop 2260, Washington, DC, 20250-2260, E-mail: rhegg@reeusda.gov

WG 3 GATT & Agriculture: Implications for Agricultural Engineering

This WG was decided to be discontinued because its activities were tranferred to other organizations.

CIGR New Web Service

The CIGR homepage on the Internet was set up in 1996 with the initiation by Prof. Egil Berge, then President of CIGR and Mr. Geir Tutturen of the Agricultural University of Norway, and supported by the University. During these years, the CIGR website has been proved a very successful way for disseminating information all over the world. For this, Mr. Tutturen has devoted great efforts and time for maintaining and updating it.

In order to enhance its service further, CIGR set up its Webmaster Working Group with the following members:

The work of the WG has been supported continuously by Prof. Berge. Since the setting up of the WG, its members have regular contacts through E-mail for discussing and improving the design, contents and service of the website. Furthermore, during the XIIIth World Congress on Agricultural Engineering in Rabat, Morocco, the WG held two meetings under presence of the CIGR Presidium and discussed the current situation and future development of the CIGR web service. With the relocation of the CIGR General Secretariat from the Research Station of Agricultural Engineering in Merelbeke, Belgium to the Institut für Landtechnik, Universität Bonn, Germany on 1 March 1998, it was decided to move the CIGR website from Agricultural University of Norway to University College Dublin, National University of Ireland. Dr. Da-Wen Sun was then given the task for constructing the new website, which has been active since 1 July 1998.

The new website is located at http://www.ucd.ie/~cigr/. Its content is divided into four sections: Structure, Services, Publications and Miscellaneous.

The new website continues to develop. In order to improve its accessibility, mirror sites will be created, probably with one located in USA, one in Norway and another one in Japan. It is foreseen that the information on CIGRFAO Global Network will be incorporating in the webservices ‚listserv'. All these will be listed in Miscellaneous section. In this section, links to other regional associations and related websites are also given. In particularly, very comprehensive compilation of agricultural and food engineering websites around the world can be found by simply clicking on the appropriate address.

Despite all these efforts, the CIGR Webmaster Working Group always works to improve the CIGR web service. Therefore, any suggestions and help are welcome. For further information and offers of help, please contact the Working Group.

Dr. Da-Wen Sun, Chairman of CIGR Webmaster Working Group

Tel: +353-1-7067493; Fax: +353-1-4752119

E-mail: dawen.sun@ucd.ie

Website: http://www.ucd.ie/~food/sun.html

NEWS FROM REGIONAL AND NATIONAL SOCIETIES

AgEng98 Oslo

Over 450 agricultural engineers from 47 countries met in Oslo from 23 to 28 August to exchange the latest findings in R&D. All continents were represented. Poster presentations (195) and oral presentations (201) in 5 parallel sessions filled most of the programme.

The keynote speech was given by Prof. Ravindra Nath Kaul from India on how to improve tools, working conditions and work output for women in developing countries.

A large proportion of the papers and posters focused on environmental improvements. There was a full 2 1/2 day programme on improved technology for plant protection to reduce or alleviate the use of pesticides. Other sessions focused on improvements in the handling of animal waste.

Few now try to develop strategies other than true recycling of plant nutrients back to crop land in sustainable quantities and the Norwegians had on display the direct ground injection (DGI) machine for manure slurry. It is a breakthrough as it is capable of successful injection of manure slurry into the soil by hydraulic pulsed jets. Results are very promising indeed both on the reduction of ammonia emission (from 50-85% down to 10-20%), on reducing odours and power requirements, and vastly extending the types of soil, crop development stage and time span where application can be successfully done. Savings on cost for buying N-fertilizer will considerably reduce the cost of owning the machine.

The next AgEng conference will be in Warwick in the UK in the year 2000.

Prof. Pierre F. J. Abeels receives ASAE Kishida International Award

Orlando, Florida - At its Annual International Meeting held in Orlando, ASAE presented its 1998 Kishida International Award to ASAE Fellow, Pierre F. J. Abeels, Professor Emeritus, Université catholique de LOUVAIN, Belgium, in recognition of his outstanding contribution to engineering through research, education and technology transfer of mechanization procedures in the forest and lumber industry which have resulted in the improvement of living conditions and education of people outside the USA.

ASAE, the Society for engineering in agriculture, food and biological systems presents the award annually. The award is endowed by Shin-Norinsha Co., Ltd. of Japan - publisher of Agricultural Mechanization in Asia, Africa and Latin America magazine and other publications - in honour of Yoshikuni Kishida, founder of the firm.

Abeels' career has included thirty years of contributions to research and education as a faculty member and visiting professor in more than twenty countries. As a consultant, he has provided guidance to world organizations and governmental groups in Africa and Asia.

His invention, development, and patent of the 'Camel Shoe' tractor tire now applicable on agricultural tractors, was a notable achievement in the mechanization of the forest and agricultural industries. He has received numerous honours and awards from the Belgium government, and was elected as ASAE Fellow in 1996.

Abeels is a member of CIGR and contributes since several years as co-ordinator of CIGR Working Groups and also is a member of various other professional and scientific organizations such as the International Society for Terrain Vehicle Systems, and was the founder and general secretary of the Belgian Society of Agricultural Engineering and the Belgian Union of Agricultural Engineering Societies.

Prof. Gajendra Singh achieved ASAE Fellow Status and Gold Medal by the ISAE

Orlando, Florida - Gajendra Singh, recently achieved the Fellow status in the American society for engineering in agriculture, food and biological systems, ASAE.

Prof. Singh, a member of ASAE for 22 years, is a professor at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) in Bangkok, Thailand. He was nominated for his contributions and leadership in the agricultural engineering profession.

Prof. Singh, Member of the Executive Board of CIGR, has returned to the AIT, after working in India as the Deputy Director General (Engineering) in the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi.

Prof. Singh was awarded the Gold Medal by the Indian Society of Agricultural Engineers for his outstanding contributions to the profession of Agricultural Engineering over the last 25 years in the field of research, teaching and research management at national and international level.

Meeting of ASAE in Orlando, Florida

A report from the International Commission of ASAE

The 1998 ASAE annual international meeting was held at Disney's Coronado Springs Resort, Orlando, Florida July 11-16, 1998. There were 1602 in attendance of which 153 were from outside the USA. Thirty-nine countries were represented. There were fourteen individual awards, twenty seven student awards, and several paper awards made at the meeting. Also, nine Fellows were inducted including Prof. Gajendra Singh of Thailand. The Kishida International Award was presented to Pierre Abeels of Belgium.

Since the ASAE constitution was extensively revised during the last year, there was considerable activity in the Commission committee meetings. It was pointed out there no longer was an "International Director" although Yoshi Kishida was a current Trustee and the International Director-elect, Prof. Gajendra Singh, would fill Yoshi's Trustee position beginning 23 July. Society structure and operation will be carried out by more or less autonomous councils and the Trustees activities will be mostly that of legal and financial matters, under the new constitution. The International Commission has representatives on two of these councils: the Membership Development Council and the Meetings Council. They also have a place on the Nominating Committee. Action at the International Affairs committee meeting set up a nominating committee of the current Vice-chairs of the Commission committees to select nominees for the Councils.

The renewal of the agreement with China is forthcoming. Prime concerns are protecting ASAE copyrights and keeping the cost so there is no loss to ASAE. An important concept being considered is that the agreement complement the other society's program and encourage in-country membership of the co-operating society.

Prof. Bill Stout, CIGR President Elect, reported to the Commission that the Congress in Rabat had been a success and noted several ASAE members had attended. Furthermore, he called attention to the 2002 Congress, which would be joint with ASAE. He also reported that the CIGR "Handbook of Agricultural Engineering" was available, that a peer-reviewed technical journal, "Agricultural Engineering International" was to be published on-line by CIGR, and that an E-mail list-server network by subject matter is available through CIGR. In related matters it was noted that several ASAE members attended and Prof. Osamu Kitani, CIGR president, was a key note speaker at the Joint International Conference on Agricultural Engineering & Technology held at Dahka, Bangladesh 15-18 Dec, 1997.

Prof. Bill Chancellor suggested the "Agricultural Engineering International Journal" contents be published in Resource magazine and John Dixon reported on a proposed partnering program for CIGR attendees at the forthcoming Congress in the USA. The Commission indicated they were looking forward to assisting with the Congress.

Zack Henry announced at the Orlando meeting that an extensive worldwide list of Agricultural Engineering organizations is available on the ASAE web page: http://www.asae.org/hotlist/abe/aes.html.

The next annual meeting will take place in July, 18-22 1998 in Toronto, Canada.

AFIA*AGRO '98

This largest international exhibition for suppliers of equipment, supplies and services for the agricultural and livestock industries was held March 5-7th in Guadalajara, Mexico. It was a record breaking exhibition in all aspects including: number of exhibition companies (271), amount of exhibit space utilized (9000 m2), and number of individual countries (24) attending the show. Obviously the right kind of buyers attended the exhibition, since 65% of the available space for 1999 (including a 25% increase) was reserved on site.

 

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