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Jerome Bandry, CEMA Secretary General, participated in the 8th World Congress on Conservation Agriculture organized with the support of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The virtual international event took place last 21st of June.
CEMA was invited to take part in the session dedicated to Private Sector Innovations & Engagement for CA Development, where CEMA Secretary General made a presentation focusing on ‘Conservation Agriculture: How can advanced farm machinery & solutions deliver?’
Mr Bandry outlined some of the global challenges that agriculture faces today:
- more and more people to feed with less and less people willing to work in agriculture
- increased demands for the adaptation of farming practices
- more limitations linked to stricter environmental measures.
In his intervention, he stressed out mechanization and technology were part of any solution and could help to tackle the challenge. Further to that, he explained conservation agriculture practices were not new for EU farmers nor for the agricultural machinery industry and he showcased some examples of advanced farm machinery made in Europe enabling Conservation Agriculture principles.
To conclude, CEMA Secretary General pointed out that in order to support Conservation Agriculture methods & sustainable agriculture practices, farmers from all farm types and sizes should have better access to adapted technologies, increase trust in the use of data and digital tools and mainstream Sustainable Agriculture Mechanization* strategies in Europe and beyond.
High-level speakers such as Dongyu QU Director-General of FAO, Agriculture’s European Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski, Norbert Lins chair of European Parliament’s Agriculture Committee, and representatives from the World Bank, IPCC, CGIAR, Global Farmer Network also participated during the virtual event.
*CEMA and the FAO have an ongoing partnership with the aim to promote sustainable mechanization of agriculture. More details here
