We are looking forward to Agritechnica 2017 and appreciate the invitation we received to speak at their Worldwide Forum 2015. We are grateful for all their support and the venue was excellent with great staff, presentation equipment, meeting and poster areas as well as monitors to show videos to the passing crowds. Agritechnica is an extraordinary opportunity to see the fullest possible range of agricultural equipment and professionals. Attendance at the event is approximately 450,000 people over 8 days! https://www.agritechnica.com/en/innovations/innovations-2015/
At Agritechnica 2015 I had the pleasure to spend time with Amir Kassam, a champion and eloquent spokesperson for Conservation Agriculture (CA) worldwide. We are very grateful for his guidance and encouragement in moving SRI closer to Conservation Agriculture and in the process developing tools for SRI rice farming that will decrease the need for tilling/disturbing the soil and increase the use of cover crops and plant residue to build soil health and discourage weed growth. For those interested in NO-till Farming/CA good places to start are the book “DIRT” and the Conservation Agriculture newsletter; http://conservationagriculture.mannlib.cornell.edu/index.html and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations website covering CA, http://www.fao.org/ag/ca/
An excellent source for equipment is at the Conservation Agriculture Technology Link of the FAO; http://www.fao.org/ag/catd/en/
Josef Kienzle, who developed this technology database, was also presenting at Agritechnica and we would like to thank him for sharing so much equipment information with us and especially the new publication; Mechanization for Rural Development; A review of patterns and progress from around the world; http://www.fao.org/docrep/018/i3259e/i3259e.pdf