AGCO, Your Agriculture Company (NYSE: AGCO), a worldwide manufacturer
and distributor of agricultural equipment, today held its third annual
AGCO Africa Summit in Berlin, Germany. The Summit is a joint initiative
of AGCO, Bayer CropScience, DEG – Deutsche Investitions- und
Entwicklungsgesellschaft, Rabobank, De Lage Landen, and the John A.
Kufuor Foundation. This year’s Summit focused on innovation – the
application of technology and science to tackle and overcome the
challenges inherent in Africa’s agriculture, and to exploit the
opportunities to raise Africa’s agricultural productivity levels for all
farmers. “Africa lies at the heart of what promises to be a new
agricultural revolution,” said Martin Richenhagen, Chairman, President
and Chief Executive Officer of AGCO. “A new roadmap for ensuring a
sustainable food supply has to be developed – harnessing the expertise
of the private industry sector, and the knowledge of local communities
and farmers.”
Rob Smith, AGCO Senior Vice President & General Manager Europe, Africa and Middle East, John Agyekum Kufuor, Former President of Ghana & Chairman of The John A. Kufuor Foundation and Martin Richenhagen, AGCO Chairman, President & CEO at the AGCO Africa Summit 2014. (Photo: Business Wire)
A key element in Africa’s agricultural revolution is intensification and
suitable mechanization. Currently, the majority of power for farming in
Africa is provided by draught animals or human hands. This not only
severely limits productivity but the hard work for so little return also
makes agriculture an unattractive occupation. According to the United
Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) farm power (from human,
animal and engine driven sources) is a crucial input in the agricultural
production process. Mechanization of farming has allowed an increase to
the area that can be planted and has contributed toward increased yields.
The FAO study 'Contribution of Farm Power to Smallholder Livelihoods in
sub-Saharan Africa' states that there are significant economic and
social benefits to be reaped from farm-power mechanization:
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economic: increasing the efficiency of labor, reducing costs,
increasing the area cultivated, undertaking more timely production,
improving the quality of cultivation, increasing yields, adopting new
crops, reducing harvest and post-harvest losses, and earning a rental
income through hiring farm-power services to others.
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social: reducing drudgery and workloads, improving safety, gaining
prestige, and encouraging younger and more innovative people to remain
in rural areas and work on the land.
“In the last decades, sub-Saharan Africa has faced significant
challenges in reducing hunger, food security and poverty,” said Rob
Smith, AGCO Senior Vice President and General Manager for Europe, Africa
& Middle East. “However, Africa has a huge growth potential in the
agricultural sector because nowhere else in the world is there such an
abundance of untapped resources. That is a major driver for AGCO to be
engaged in the World Economic Forum’s Grow Africa Initiative and why we
are committed to the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition of the
G8.” 15% of the world’s arable land lies in Africa, of which more than
80% remains uncultivated. Pre-1960, Africa provided 10% of the world’s
food, that figure is less than 1% today. After decades of decline, the
sub-Saharan agricultural sector – 80% of which consists of smallholder
farmers – finally started to grow over the last few years.
“Innovation and investment has driven agricultural productivity to new
highs in developed countries, and now these resources should be
redirected towards a continent that has the means and potential to feed
the world,” explained Mr. Richenhagen. AGCO continues to be engaged in
Africa and has developed a strategy that focuses on investment in human
capital to improve farming know-how, improvement of distribution and
expansion of AGCO products and services.
AGCO plans to continue to collaborate on establishing further
demonstration farms and training centers in different African countries.
These facilities will allow local farmers and dealers to be trained on
new farming technology. Currently, Zambia has an AGCO Future Farm and
Training Center already operating, and it has yielded its first harvest
of maize and soybeans in the last year. A key component to the success
at Zambia’s Chalimbana Farm and Training Center are the strong
partnerships that have been forged. The purpose of these partnerships is
to bring together subject matter experts from various backgrounds that
can create a roadmap to educate and train farmers on how to increase
their agricultural productivity.
Through its global tractor brand, Massey Ferguson, AGCO has more than 50
years of experience in African agriculture. During this time African
farmers have come to rely on the quality, reliability and support
provided by Massey Ferguson, which was a major player in the power
farming revolution, mechanizing and increasing farming efficiency across
the continent. Recently, AGCO started a joint venture with companies
owned by the Algerian government to locally produce Massey Ferguson
tractors. This venture will continue to build on innovation in the
field, and mechanization as well as encouraging farmers how to become
more productive.
This year’s AGCO Africa Summit turnout was exceptional, and AGCO is
proud and excited at the success of the journey started together three
years ago.
ABOUT AGCO
AGCO, Your Agriculture Company, (NYSE: AGCO), is a global leader focused
on the design, manufacture and distribution of agricultural machinery.
AGCO supports more productive farming through a full line of tractors,
combines, hay tools, sprayers, forage equipment, tillage, implements,
grain storage and protein production systems, as well as related
replacement parts. AGCO products are sold through five core machinery
brands, Challenger®, Fendt®, GSI®, Massey Ferguson® and Valtra® and are
distributed globally through 3,150 independent dealers and distributors
in more than 140 countries worldwide. Founded in 1990, AGCO is
headquartered in Duluth, GA, USA. In 2012, AGCO had net sales of $10
billion. www.AGCOcorp.com
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