CIGR Newsletter No 42

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

NEWS FROM THE PRESIDIUM

Report from the President

The XIIIth CIGR World Congress was held from 2 to 6 February, 1998 in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. It was the first World Congress held on the African Continent and in the developing region of the world in the 68 year history of CIGR. In the past, eleven World Congresses were held in Europe and one in North America. The first World Congress in Africa symbolises recent changes within CIGR which is now active as worldwide networking organisation in agricultural engineering and related fields.

This congress was organised by the Moroccan National CIGR Committee (ANAFID) and placed under the High Patronage of His Majesty Hassan II, The King of Morocco. The Congress was co-sponsored by three Regional Associations of CIGR, viz. ASAE, EurAgEng and AAAE and was organised with the collaboration of the Administration of Agricultural Engineering and the Institute of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine Hassan II in Rabat.

The Presidium and Representatives of the Regional Associations of CIGR were received by the Moroccan Minister of Agriculture, Equipment and Environment Mr. A. Meziane who also kindly accepted to chair the opening ceremony.

There were 660 attendants from 60 countries from all over the world. About 300 presentations were made in the three days technical sessions. There were nearly 60 papers and posters presented by Moroccan participants. I was very much impressed by the fact that more than 80 agricultural engineering students from the African Continent participated in the congress and three recipients of the Armand Blanc Prize were also from the same continent, particularly from Morocco.

The proceedings of the XIIIth CIGR World Congress are composed of 6 volumes. Each volume is related to one of the six CIGR Technical Sections. Volumes can be ordered separately or all together at US $35 per volume incl. P. & P. from ANAFID,2 rue Haroun Errachid, Rabat Morocco. Fax : 212 7 67 03 03 e-mail : hbartali@atlasnet.net.ma

The General Assembly and the Executive Board Meeting of CIGR were held during the congress in the Rabat Hilton. Prof. E. H. Bartali was elected as the new Incoming President effective from January 1, 1999 and Prof. P. Schultze Lammers as the new Secretary-General from March 1, 1998 on. CIGR’s General Secretariat moves from Belgium to Germany, more precisely the University of Bonn. Prof. B. A. Stout, the current Incoming President made an address as the new President starting from January 1, 1999.

Titles of Honorary President were presented to Prof. E. Berge, the Past President and Prof. J. Daelemans, the Secretary-General. Deep gratitude was expressed by the President to them as well as to their institutions especially to the Belgian Government for supporting the General Secretariat for nine years.

The General Assembly also elected the new Technical Boards of the six Sections for the term 1999 - 2002. The new Section Chairmen effective from January 1, 1999 are;

S-I: Land and Water Use : Prof. L. S. Pereira, Portugal

S-II: Farm Buildings, Equipment, Structures and Environment : Ir. J. Voermans, The Netherlands

S-III: Equipment Engineering for Plant Production : Prof. E. H. Bourarach, Morocco

S-IV: Rural Electricity and Other Energy Sources : Prof. A. Ramdani, Morocco

S-V: Management, Ergonomics and Systems Engineering : Prof. T. Luoma, Finland

S-VI: Processing : Prof. M. Ruiz-Altisent, Spain.

A reorganisation of the current 17 Working Groups was proposed. A new Working Group on Information Systems was started with as Chairman Prof. R. O. Hegg.

It was decided to initiate an electronic journal which will be published through CIGR’s electronic network. This peer-reviewed journal will be edited by the Editorial Committee headed by Prof. B. A. Stout and Dr. G. Sabbagh.

The CIGR Handbook project is almost in its final stage of editorial process by the CIGR Handbook Editorial Board. Part of the manuscript was handed to the publisher, ASAE. The final schedule to deliver all the manuscripts of five volumes had been decided upon and ASAE was informed of the decision.

The international activities of CIGR have been supported by the volunteer activities of many individual members. To express CIGR’s appreciation to them, a new award system was examined and initiated. A new award sponsored by the Italian Association of Farm Machinery Manufacturers, UNACOMA was presented during the banquet to Prof. G. Pellizzi, former President of CIGR and President of the Club of Bologna for his outstanding leadership to have made CIGR a worldwide networking organisation and to have initiated the Club of Bologna which promotes agricultural mechanisation throughout the world. The new CIGR Merit Awards were presented to Prof. A. Bekkali, Chairman of the Organising Committee of the XIIIth World Congress in Morocco, Prof. Z. Sibalzsky, Organiser of ten CIGR conferences and symposia, Ir. J. C. Souty, Executive Board Member leading the French-speaking regions of the world, and Mr. Y. Kishida who contributed so much to improve the financial situation of CIGR. Titles of Honorary Vice President were offered to the current six Section Chairmen, viz. S-I: Prof. H.N. van Lier, S-II: Prof. Y. Hashimoto, S-III: Mr. B. Chèze, S-IV: Prof. T. Jungbluth, S-V: Dr. W. Luder, S-VI: Prof. F.W. Bakker-Arkema for their leadership in their section activities in 1995-1998.

Encouraging young agricultural engineers is one of the most important tasks of CIGR. The traditional Armand Blanc Prizes were awarded to young agricultural engineers who presented excellent papers during the congress. Certificates of Attendance to the 13th World Congress were presented to 85 students during the Closing Session of the congress.

The technical tours and the post-congress tours were also well-organised. I attended one of them which included many agricultural engineering projects in the north-western part of the Sahara Desert. We were very much impressed by the green palm and olive belt created by an irrigation project in the desert as well as by the rain and subsequent flooding in the desert which we happened to encounter.

The next World Congress on the occasion of the 70th Anniversary of CIGR and the turn of the century will be held in Tsukuba, Japan on November 28-December 1, 2000. The World Congress in 2002 is scheduled in Chicago, USA.

Prof. O. Kitani, President of CIGR

NEW CIGR ELECTRONIC JOURNAL

The CIGR Executive Board and General Assembly approved a new refereed journal at the Congress in Rabat. Agricultural Engineers from around the world are invited to submit manuscripts in the following categories:

Original research papers will be refereed by members of the Editorial Board. Following successful review and necessary revisions, papers will be placed on the World Wide Web at the following website:

http://www.agen.tamu.edu/cigr/

This website contains more details about the journal, guide for authors, mission statement, members of the Editorial Board, general philosophy and other information. Further infor-mation can also be obtained from Dr. George Sabbagh, Editor-in-Chief at:

gsabbagh@tamu.edu

We encourage all agricultural engineers and others interested in agricultural engineering subject matter to submit high quality manuscripts.

NEWS FROM THE SECTIONS AND WORKING GROUPS

New Working Group on Information Systems

The Executive Board of CIGR has recommended the formation of a new Working Group at its meeting at the XIIIth 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, mechanisation, 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 its members to have a separate W.G. If after two years there is adequate justification the W.G. may be considered as a new Section.

One task that this W.G. must accomplish is to define the scope and range of activities which should be included. Some of the topics that ‘may’ be included in this W.G. are: knowledge systems, geographical information systems, machine vision, information technologies, operations research, automation, robotics, radiation, instrumentation and controls, information processing, communications technologies, pattern recognition… Your input is requested as to what you think should be included and why.

It is ‘not’ intended that this W.G. would reduce or inhibit any of the current activities in the Sections that deal with information systems. The W.G. plans to cooperate with other organisations that deal with the advancement and refinement of information systems in agriculture.

This is an announcement to request those who are interested in the W.G. to contact by May 30, 1998:

Dr. Richard Hegg, Chairman, CSREES-USDA, 1400 Independence Ave., Stop 2240, Washington DC 20250-2240, USA. Phone: +1 202 401 1719 Fax.: +1 202 401 5035

E-mail: rhegg@reeusda.gov   or:
Prof. Dr. John C. Hayes, P.E., Dept. Agricultural & Biological Engineering, 201 McAdams Hall, Clemson University, Clemson, SC 29634-0357, USA.
Phone: +1 864 656 4042 Fax.: +1 864 656 0338
E-mail: jhayes@clemson.edu

CIGR - W.G.9 "Sustainable Land Use Planning"

Report on current and future activities and co-operations

1. Current Activities:

Working Group 9 has organised a (second) workshop on 'Sustainable Land Use Planning with special regard to Central and Eastern European Countries'. The objective of this second workshop was to search for acceptable solutions for land use in especially Eastern European Countries under conditions of radical change in their national economies. The traditional food production function of farming has to be harmonised with other functions of the countryside, notably so with nature and landscape protection and environmental control. In fact the challenge is to create sustainable rural systems for a multi-functional green space. The workshop was organised in September 1996 at the University of Gödö11ö.

2. Co-operation

The workshop and its following activities have been set up, organised and worked on in close co-operation with the Institute of Environmental and Landscape Management of the Agricultural University of Gödö11ö, Hungary and ISOMUL, the International Study Group on Multiple Use of Land. The topic, dealt with in W.G. 9, has a close relationship with several topics of ISOMUL. In fact this is a continuation of a co-operation established in 1992, on the occasion of the first Workshop on Sustainable Land Use Planning.

3. Further Activities

Based on the presentations and discussions, held in the Workshop in Gödö11ö, it was decided to prepare a special issue of the Journal of 'Landscape and Urban Planning' on the topic of Sustainable Land Use Planning. The articles are primarily based on several of the presented papers at the Workshop. However, some additional articles are prepared, while the workshop papers are under extensive reviewing and corrections. The special issue is planned to be published in 1998.

Communicated by Prof. H.N. van Lier, Chairman W.G. 9.

Report of Section II - World Congress: "Structures, Equipment and Environment"

There was a broad and interesting programme for Section II. The first item "Structures needed for irrigation and water control" is fairly new for the Section, but in dry areas very important. There were 12 papers from 4 different countries in these sessions. Good structures enable to improve the efficient use of water.

Storage of agricultural products can be another function of structures. There were 7 papers from 5 countries concerning the storage buildings. Preventing spilling of good quality agricultural products is important worldwide.

Four sessions are used to present and discuss the papers dealing with the environmental effects of animal housing and slurry storage. There were 25 papers originating from 11 countries. The political and scientific interest for controlling emissions from animal houses is increasing in even more countries. Special symposia on this topic were and still are organised by the Section Board. Closer co-operation between research workers will improve the research methods and the results.

Cost reduction of farm buildings got the attention in the last session, where 8 papers from 6 countries were presented.

Summarising it can be concluded that Section II offers the opportunity for international co-operation. This opportunity must be used to optimise the effects of the limited national budgets for research.

Comm. by J. Voermans, Vice Chm. Section II.

NEWS FROM REGIONAL AND NATIONAL SOCIETIES

ASAE News ++ ASAE News ++ ASAE News

Many ASAE members attended the 13th Congress of CIGR in Morocco. A few (11) were able to attend an on-site-planned breakfast February 5. During the breakfast comments were made by ASAE President Fridley, incoming CIGR President Stout, Trustee Kishida and ASAE staff representative Hahn. There was also considerable discussion about ways CIGR and ASAE could cooperate to promote the agricultural engineering profession and share agricultural engineering information. One thread of the discussion was that ASAE members need to be better acquainted with their counterparts through out the world. It was noted this need is emphasised by the continuing increase in international trade. With this thought in mind, ASAE President Fridley asked Russ Hahn and John Dixon to work out a proposal for ASAE and CIGR members to share in a partnering program at the time of the CIGR /ASAE joint meeting scheduled in the USA in 2002.

A large number of ASAE and CIGR members attended the "Joint International Conference on Agricultural Engineering and Technology Exhibition ’97" held at Dhaka, Bangladesh December 15-18. About ninety technical and plenary session papers were presented. Each attendee received a copy of the proceedings.

At the last annual meeting of ASAE in Minneapolis the revised constitution took effect and the Society is governed by Trustees rather than Directors. As with all members the relationship of International Commission members with the Society is different than it was. During the revision, the International Commission Steering Committee asked for representation on the Nominating Committee and that a Trustee be from the International Commission membership. This was done. Also at the meeting a committee (Lal Kashwaha chr.) was setup to prepare by-laws for an international institute within ASAE. Draft by-laws have been prepared with the title "The International Institute of Agricultural Engineers of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers". Some people think the ASAE part will be left out in normal title use, which will give the impression the institute is world encompassing rather than a part of ASAE. With this in mind, it has been suggested the name be "ASAE’s International Institute". There are also people that think the Commission should wait a few years to see how the new structure works before forming an institute.

The ASAE Foundation has paid shipping costs for ASAE journals donated by members to ASAE for libraries in developing nations. If you know of someone willing to donate their journals for this purpose or of a qualifying library, ask them to contact ASAE. The staff there will pass the request on to the appropriate person for follow up. (Do not ship journals to ASAE.)

EurAgEng SIG on Soil and Water: Activity Programme

The following scientific events, falling under the scope and the interest of the Group, have been scheduled:

* Workshop on "Water and Energy Saving lrrigation Techniques" organised by the Institute of Production Engineering of Braunschweig, in co-operation with the SIG, to be held in Braunschweig (Germany), from 14 to 17 June.

Main topics: Irrigation scene in Germany, Water and energy saving irrigation techniques, Irrigation management tools, Basic elements and strategies towards sustainable agriculture on irrigated cropland.

Convenor: Prof. C. Sommer, Institute of Production Engineering, Bundesalle 50, D-38116 Braunschweig (Germany) Fax: + 49 531 596363

* International Course on Experimental Data and Validation of Groundwater Mathematical Models for Reclamation of Pollution Sites", organised by the Italian Association of Groundwater Engineering and the European Graduate School of Hydraulics, with the SIG's co-sponsorship, to be held in Cosenza (Italy) from 6 to 10 July.

Main topics: Experimental data and model validation, Modelling of multiphase flow and transport processes, Bio-remediation techniques, Groundwater quality management, Case study: presentation and discussion.

Convenor: Prof. Salvatore Troisi, Chairman of the Italian Association of Groundwater Engineering, Dipartimento di Difesa del Suolo 'Vincenzo Marone" Universita della Calabria (Italy). Fax: + 39 984 934245

Workshop on Sustainable Tillage Systems, organised by the National Soil Dynamics Laboratory and Auburn University Agricultural Engineering and Agronomy and Soil Departments in collaboration with among other frameworks, EurAgEng, to be held in Auburn, Alabama, USA, on July 8-10, 1998.

Main topics: Soil dynamics and sustainable tillage, Degraded soil and sustainable tillage, Tillage systems and sustainability, Other topics related to sustainable tillage systems.

Convenors: Prof. D.C. Erbach, P. Turnquist and J.T. Touchton, Auburn University, Agricultural Engineering Department, Fax.: +1 334 887 8597.

* "International Workshop on 'The Use of Saline and Brackish Water for Irrigation: Implications for the Management of Irrigation, Drainage and Crops", organised by the ICID Working Group on Sustainable Crop and Water Use in cooperation with, among other frameworks, the SIG, to be held in Bali (Indonesia) on 23 and 24 July.

Main topics: Irrigation water management under saline conditions, Drainage water management, Utilisation of salt-tolerant field crops.

Convenor: Prof. Ragab Ragab, Chairman of the ICID Working Group on Sustainable Crops and Water Use, Institute of Hydrology, Wallingford, Oxon OX1 08 BB, U.K.

Fax: + 44 1491 692424

* AgEng Oslo 98 International Conference on "Agricultural Engineering", organised by EurAgEng. The SIG is the official structure that manages the scientific aspects of the Section. C: Soil and Water Use.

Main topics of the Section Soil and Water Use: Field crop production, Horticultural production, Animal production, Forest production, Rural development.

Convenor: Prof. Egil Berge, Department of Agricultural Engineering, P.O. Box 5065, N - 1432 As, Norway.

Fax: + 47 64 948810

comm. by Prof. D. De Wrachien,

Chm. EurAgEng SIG on Soil and Water.

NEWS FROM INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATIONS

Report of the 8th Meeting of the Club of Bologna

48 Experts from 25 countries attended the 8th Club of Bologna Meeting - held under the auspices of CIGR - from October 30 to November 1, 1997. The Club members discussed two main topics viz.:

  1. Contractors : new machines to increase the efficiency of field operations
  2. Role of electronics and decision support systems for a new mechanisation.

The recently introduced Postgraduate Diploma / MSc. in European Agricultural Engineering (EUTRAC) was also briefly discussed. The meeting reached unanimously the following conclusions and recommendations:

1. Contractors : new machines to increase the efficiency of the various field operations .

This subject - previously discussed in 1992 - was considered in relation to conditions in different geographical areas, with contributions from the following key-note speakers: A.M. El Hossary (Egypt); A. Lara Lopez (Mexico); H.D. Kutzbach (Germany) and R. Guidotti (Italy) who reflected the views of the agricultural contractors.

The papers presented and the discussion that followed emphasised the growing technical and economic importance of the role played by contractors in carrying out field operations. This is the case in both the industrialised and developing countries although there is a wide variation between countries in the number and distribution of contracting enterprises.

Whilst full contract-farming of specific crops (i.e. where the contractor undertakes all operations from soil preparation to harvest and transport) is not yet common in many countries there is increasingly widespread availability of contract services for the more common operations. These involve specialist machinery for operations such as harvesting and transport of cereals and forage as well as the other main field crops. Other operations for which the contractor services are widely available include soil tillage, seeding and agro-chemical application (pesticides, herbicides and fertilisers). All this has a considerable influence on the agricultural machinery market. In fact most of the industrialised countries contractors undertake over 60% of all cereal and forage crop harvesting activities.

After a wide-ranging and thorough discussion the meeting agreed that contracting services could reduce costs and improve farmers income and help sustain their livelihoods. In order to maximise the technical and economic advantages of contracting services however, it is necessary to ensure that the enterprises are highly efficient, utilise the most appropriate equipment and adopt the most rigorous operational and management procedures.

As far as technical aspects are concerned it was emphasised that there was a need for a wide range of appropriate machines specifically designed for use by contractors. These should incorporate high work capacity, manoeuvrability, comfort and safety of operation (to reduce operator fatigue), simplicity of maintenance, high levels of automation, low fuel consumption, minimal levels of pollution, and be capable of achieving high quality work at high speeds.

The organisation and management of contracting enterprises is equally important. The careful selection, training and supervision of highly skilled operators, mechanics and support staff is crucial. The enterprise owner or its management must also be able to specify, operate, maintain and manage machinery and equipment appropriate to the technical , agronomic, and financial requirements of the farmer. Machinery must be operated according to all prevailing rules and regulations especially those related to safety. Charge rates must be appropriate to the nature of the work and the value of the end product. Reliability and meeting the needs of the customer must be priorities as with any business enterprise in order to gain and attain the confidence of that customer viz. the farmer. The participants recommended unanimously that:

  1. Technical aspects
  1. Management aspects

2. Role of electronics and decision support systems for a new mechanisation

This subject was considered on the basis of four key-note reports presented by H. Auernhammer (Germany); J.K. Schueller (USA); who expressed the point of view of research; A.R. Rider (USA) and W. von Allwörden (Germany), who presented the point of view of industry.

All the participants recognised the growing importance of electronics in modern mechanisation and underlined the relevance of this subject to the one previously examined concerning contracting. In fact, electronic devices and decision support systems are most widely used in larger, high capacity tractors and machines of the types typically used by contractors.

At present electronic systems are used in only a few basic areas such as control functions for the reduction of operator fatigue, the improvement of machine performance, process control in the optimisation of the relationship between the machine, soil, plants and animals.

The first two examples were the basis of electronic systems when they were first introduced 25 years ago as an interface between the operator and control functions on tractors, implements and machines. The other example represents the latest trend in which electronic systems and sensors permit a dialogue between the machine and its working environment. The aim is to enable precision farming techniques to be adopted that will allow biologically, economically and environmentally sustainable production systems to be established.

The main tractor manufacturers have solved many of the problems of applying electronics within the tractor, such as for engine control and monitoring, transmission systems and electronic communication and control networks for the mounted implements or equipment (through BUS systems). They are now working on decision support and control systems to monitor the agricultural processes and to protect the environment (yield mapping, patch spraying, etc.).

In the light of growing farm size and the increasing use of contractors the participants underlined the need to develop and promote electronic solutions based on satellite positioning and navigation systems to support machinery operation and management. This will require systems able to interact between management information systems (MIS) and mobile process systems (MPS) and the increasing use of robotic control methods based on DGPS.

The informative papers presented by the manufacturers gave a good account of recent progress and outlined current developments aimed particularly at reducing operator stress and improving equipment performance. The discussion indicated that there are still some difficulties in delivering the various innovations to the end user in an acceptable and cost effective way and to differentiate between the needs of the industrialised and developing countries.

In conclusion the participants unanimously recommended close collaboration between industry and research organisations in the development of such aspects as innovative sensors and actuators in precision farming systems able to work in real time and decision support systems capable of better control and monitoring of various agricultural processes. There was also need to develop better international standards in the various technologies such as in diagnostic systems, universal interfaces to GIS, high performance BUS systems compatible with the existing mechanical solutions and limitation of electro-magnetic emissions etc. In order to realise the potential of these innovations further work on the economic as well as the technical aspects may be necessary. Promotion to farmers and other users will also be needed.

Finally, the participants underlined the importance of safety and environmental factors and emphasised the need for developing countries to adopt more robust and less complicated electronic technologies in the first instance.

3. EUTRAC: Postgraduate Certificate / MSc in European Agricultural Engineering

Following a short introductory presentation by N. Warner (UK) and R. Ramharter (Austria), the participants expressed their support for the multinational co-operation programme promoted by the Royal Agricultural College of Cirencester (UK) and involving the Institutes of Agricultural Engineering of the Universities of Hohenheim (Germany), Milano (Italy) and Wien (Austria). The aim of the 2-year long course leading to a Postgraduate Certificate in European Agricultural Engineering is to produce agricultural engineers with a knowledge of the industrial sector of at least 2 EU countries selected from the 4 participating countries mentioned above. Following discussion the participants recommended the expansion of the programme to other European Countries and requested a progress report from the course organisers at a future Club meeting. Comm. by Prof. G. Pellizzi

 

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