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AFC together with its partner, DLG International, is implementing the project “Joint German-Chinese Demonstration Farm Ganhe” in Inner Mongolia. The project, which is financed under the bilateral cooperation programme by the German Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV), started in 2008 and is now running in its final year.
From 17th to 20th of June 2014, a Delegation from the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has visited Germany for a short but intensive agricultural study tour.
The Group, which was composed of Department Chiefs and representatives from the MoA Department of Mechanisation, Department of Crop Science, the International Department and the MoA Extension Centre, visited several German agricultural enterprises and farms in order to see how large scale farming in Germany is organised and managed successfully.
The tour started with a visit to a German Seed enterprise where the importance of plant breeding for agricultural development, the framework conditions for breeding and multiplication, seed certification and release were discussed.
A highlight of the tour was the visit to the DLG Field Days in Bernburg, Germany’s biggest field day with about 350 exhibitors and more than 23.000 visitors, of which 2.300 were international guests from 42 countries. The DLG Field Day offered a unique information programme dealing with all aspects of modern crop production.
The Group was welcomed by Mr. Bernd Koch, the Managing Director of DLG International, who gave an introduction to the field days. The high quality of the range of products and services on offer generated great interest on the part of the participants and the group was busy all day to get information on machinery, seed varieties, plant protection and fertilizers, specific agricultural engineering processes etc..
On the following day the group visited the “Neu-Seeland” agricultural enterprise, where the focus was on precision farming. The owner of the farm, Mr. Lisso, introduced the concept of precision farming and explained how optimising returns on inputs while preserving resources can be achieved by observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops and thus, by matching farming practices more closely to crop needs.
Following the theoretical part of the visit, the machinery park was visited and the group could watch work in the field where Triticale was chopped for the use in the farm owned biogas plant. The participants were given the opportunity to each jump on a tractor or chopper and get an insight of the operation on the field.
The final day of the study tour included a visit to the Claas Used Machinery Centre where the group got an introduction to the used agricultural machinery market in Germany and the question of when it is worth to invest in a new or used machinery was discussed. A further topic was the need of technical innovations in agriculture and how the machinery companies can contribute to this.
In the afternoon the Delegation was welcomed at the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) in Berlin. After an introduction and information of future activities of the BMEL in China, the remaining activities during the final year of the project were discussed.
The 4 days of this study tour were characterised by lively discussions not only with the representatives of the organisations visited but also amongst the group. This showed that the topics chosen for this tour were of interest to the participants and it is hoped that the experience gained will be an asset to their work and tasks in the Ministry of Agriculture.
For further information please contact:
Mr. Horst Bunge (Team Leader) bunge-afc [at] dlg.org.cn
Ms. Tesa Weiss (Project Manager) tesa.weiss [at] afci.de