Reporting back from AGRITECHNICA

25 November 2011

From 13th to 19th of November 2011 415,000 visitors (with 24% of international visitors) came to see the AGRITECHNICA, the world's largest exhibition for agricultural machinery and equipment in Hanover. Altogether 2,698 exhibitors (50 percent of international participation) in 24 halls and one open air floor filled 221,792 m2 of net floor space; with an overal of 388,542 m2 occupied exhibition space it covered nearly the whole available fair space.

By Christoph Zecha, PhD Student, University of Hohenheim

About 66 percent of the visitors were dedicated to agriculture and forestry. Around 18,000 decision-makers and investors came from the large farms in Central and Eastern Europe, some 34,000 contractors more visited Hanover to see the latest developments of manufacturers and to plan their future invests. To get in direct contact with the companies as well is a important component of this fair, a great platform to enlarge his 'social network'.

Interesting product beside all the each time larger, faster, wider machinery and equipment was 'FarmPilot' of arvato systems GmbH (Germany). Together with different other manufacturers it's a possibility for linking farm equipment, mobile devices and software programs, easy accessible via the Internet and data transfer by mobile communication.
At the Special "Smart Farming - Intelligent and sustainable plant production" DLG together with representatives from the University of Hohenheim, consultancy services and the industry offered informations on the latest developments. Five thematic areas were:

• Navigation;
• Sensor technology;
• Data management;
• Isobus and
• Future

These thematic areas informed about what technique is already available and what can be expected in future.

Also from exhibitors side this year's AGRITECHNICA was a great success. 92 % of them reported that their participation had produced a positive overall result with very positive outlook for post-exhibition business with many new interesting contacts and good technical qualification of the visitors for discussion.

We are looking forward to the next AGRITECHNICA, 10th - 16th of November 2013 on the Exhibition Ground in Hanover.

Source: www.farmpilot.de/en/, www.agritechnica.com