Technology for sustainable agriculture

Machine control via cameras and computers, the use of drones and robots: Agricultural technology is moving at full speed towards digitization. How are the farmers supposed to cope?

“The operation of this technology is the big challenge,” says Martin Anzengruber, head of the agricultural and environmental technology department at the HTL in Ried and lecturer in agricultural technology at the Wels University of Applied Sciences. This training is intended to help young farmers cope with digitization. “Many agricultural machines are only used at longer intervals, and that makes handling more difficult,” says Anzengruber: “Producers that enable intuitive operation as easy as with a smartphone will be successful. Unfortunately, we’re still a long way from that.”

Precisely against weeds

Markus Baldinger, head of technology at Pöttinger in Grieskirchen, the leading local producer, sees great potential in the trend towards sustainable agriculture. Cameras on agricultural equipment should make it possible to control weeds with pinpoint accuracy, and there would be no need for widespread spraying. Pöttinger opened its first production facility in Lower Austria last week. In Stoitzendorf, the CFS company builds cultivators for orchards and vineyards; In the future, Pöttinger will manufacture them for arable farming with 20 employees. These devices remove weeds mechanically instead of using chemicals and will soon be camera-controlled.

The development also goes in the direction of field robots. However, Pöttinger itself will not offer any drive vehicles, just the attachments. “We are clear specialists. When it comes to the drive, we remain neutral, as we did with the tractors,” says Baldinger.