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Châtenay-Malabry (FR - 92290), May 09, 2022


EFITA newsletter / 1038 - European Federation for Information Technology in Agriculture, Food and the Environment


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DLG-Feldtage (Germany)

14-16 June - the Kirschgartshausen experimental farm venue near Mannheim, Germany.

With around 350 exhibitors and a specialist programme on the current key issues, the DLG- Feldtage event will once again present itself as the most important field trade fair in Germany for the crop sector. Under the guiding theme "My crop production. My future.", the DLG-Feldtage open air event will once again be the leading platform for modern crop production.
 
In the 45 hectares exhibition area, plant breeders will be showing both approved and new varieties of all market-relevant crops. Other building blocks of crop production, such as fertilisation, crop protection, cultivation methods and the latest solutions in terms of agricultural machinery, precision farming and digitalisation, complement the range of information and exhibits.
See dlg-feldtage.de


Before computers: Vintage tractors

 


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Premier pas, 1858, par JF Millet, Museum of Art Rogers, Laurel (Mississippi)

01- 05/05/2022
 


How much of the world’s food production is dependent on pollinators? By Hannah Ritchie, August 02, 2021

Many of the world’s pollinator insects are in decline.
What does this mean for global food production?

See ourworldindata.org
 

See ourworldindata.org
 


Père Melon Cutting Wood, 1880, par Camille Pissarro

02- 05/05/2022
 


Wild mammals have declined by 85% since the rise of humans, but there is a possible future where they flourish

A diverse range of mammals once roamed the planet. This changed quickly and dramatically with the arrival of humans. Since the rise of humans, wild land mammal biomass has declined by 85%.

Our history with wild mammals has been a zero-sum game: we either hunted them or destroyed their habitats with the expansion of agricultural lands. Without these wild habitats to expand into and produce food on, the rise of humans would have been impossible.

But, for the first time in human history, we have the opportunity to turn this into a net-sum game: we can produce enough food from a smaller land area, making it possible for wild mammals to flourish again.

In this article from April 2021 we look at the long-term decline of wild mammals and how we could reverse this trend.

This is part of our work on Biodiversity, where we also take a look at other wildlife species (such as birds, fish, & coral reefs) and cover topics including poaching & the wildlife trade, habitat loss, and protected areas & conservation.



How did we see the future yesterday??
See the incredible collection developed by Alain Fraval

Archives of our newsletters in French and English
Voir Afia
Voir Efita


 


FutureFarming.com

> Solinftec launches autonomous crop monitoring robot

Solinftec launched the first commercially available Brazilian agricultural robot during the Agrishow 2022. The Solix Ag Robotics system uses the artificial intelligence platform Alice AI for scanning crops such as grain, fiber and sugarcane on a large scale. Solix Ag Robotics will be avaible firstly in Brazil, the United States and Canada.

> New AGCO acquisition to boost development of autonomous machines
AGCO has acquired JCA Industries, a developer of autonomous software for agricultural machines, implement controls and electronic system components. JCA, based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, specialises in the design of electronic systems and software development to automate and control agricultural equipment.

> Drones: Study: All Dutch growers to use spraying drones
In the long term, every fruit and vegetable grower in the Netherlands will be using a drone to spray crops. That is the conclusion of a study by SEO Economic Research into the potential of drones in horticulture and arable farming.

> Machinery: Stara grain seeder can be operated by smartphone
The Brazilian machinery manufacturer Stara introduced a new grain seeder at the Agrishow, the trade fair for agricultural technology in Brazil. The seeder can be operated using a smartphone.

> Connectivity: Telit joins ConectarAGRO to bring 4G connectivity to Brazilian farmers
Telit, a global enabler of the Internet of Things (IoT), partners with the ConectarAGRO Association, a Brazilian non-profit organisation that aims to give Brazilian farmers access to 4G mobile internet throughout the country and promote adoption of smart farming technologies.

> Irrigation: Aliaxis and CropX partner in data-driven precision irrigation
Aliaxis, a Belgian company specialised in advanced water and energy systems, has signed an investment agreement and will be partnering with Israeli company CropX, which focuses on data-driven farming solutions. Through the partnership, Aliaxis and CropX will collaborate in the field of data-driven precision irrigation.


> Yannick Robiglio: “Field robot gives me back control over my time”
The Vitibot Bakus is a viticultural straddle robot that integrates a wide range of modular tools. After careful consideration, French wine grower Yannick Robiglio decided to buy one. He has been working with it for a year now. What are his experiences?


> Autonomous tractors: Autonomous Case IH Magnum with cab drives in Brazil
At the Agrishow in Ribeirão Preto in the Brazilian state of São Paulo last week, the autonomous Case IH tractor equipped with a cab was shown to the public for the first time.

> Autonomous vehicles: Autonomous trucks replace tractors on Brazilian farms
Brazilian agtech company Grunner turns regular Mercedes-Benz trucks into autonomous farm vehicles for sugar cane harvesting. With the autonomous trucks, farmers can reduce both costs and soil compaction.

> Field robots: two-year test with Slopehelper vineyard robot in Slovenia
The Experimental Orchard of the Agricultural Institute of Slovenia will conduct a two-year test of the Slopehelper vineyard robot, developed by PeK Automotive. Slopehelper is an agricultural autonomous electrical robot that covers the complete annual cycle of operations in vineyards and orchards.

> Irrigation: Viridix launches AI-based autonomous irrigation solution
Viridix’s Gen3 new system connects with remote monitoring and irrigation control solutions, creating a autonomous irrigation solution.

> Field robots: Solinftec launches autonomous crop monitoring robot
Solinftec launched the first commercially available Brazilian agricultural robot during the Agrishow 2022. The Solix Ag Robotics system uses the artificial intelligence platform Alice AI for scanning crops such as grain, fiber and sugarcane on a large scale.

See FutureFarming.com


Paysanne démêlant la laine, par Camille Pissarro

03 - 05/05/2022
 


Startups Are Leading the Way in Agtech and Food Innovation

Agtech and new food startups are hot in terms of funding, technical innovation, product development, and ROI.
See precisionag.com


EOS Data Analytics Provides Data On Sowing In Ukraine

The custom project will benefit not only farmers but all agriculture-engaged businesses and institutions.
See precisionag.com


Vendanges, de Léon Lhermitte (1844-1925)

04 - 05/05/2022
 


Yamaha Motor Ventures Leads $7.5 Million Series A Funding Round for AgTech Startup Verge Ag

Investment into AI-powered farm operations planning software, Launch Pad, designed to fill critical gap in current autonomous farming solutions.
See precisionag.com


10 Digital Technologies That Are Transforming Agriculture

From robotics to connectivity, technological transformation offers tremendous possibility for the farming and food sectors.
See precisionag.com


Vertical Farming Startup Future Crops Announces New Investment Round

New agri-tech vertical farm system reshaping agriculture to sustain growing populations with high-yield crops.
See precisionag.com





How blockchain could shield smallholder farmers from climate risk, GreenBiz, by Theresa Lieb

In March, the Lemonade Foundation, a charity run by the founders of the digital insurance provider Lemonade, announced plans to use "blockchain to protect farmers in Africa from climate change." I tend to be skeptical of tech companies’ lofty goals to save the world with an app — or, in this case, a blockchain. But I was also curious about the idea because smallholder farmers could greatly benefit from better access to technology and services.

So I dug into the still rather cryptic blockchain insurance world — and emerged more optimistic on the other side. It seems like blockchain-based insurance could indeed be helpful for smallholder farmers.
.../...
See greenbiz.com


In the Vineyard, 1898, by Elin Danielson-Gambogi, Finnish painter

05 - 05/05/2022
 


Cryptos and streaming going down

01 - 05/05/2022  


Dependence on Russian and Ukrainian wheat

02 - 05/05/2022  


Breakdown of European FoodTech investments

03 - 05/05/2022  


Capital public par habitant / Public capital per capita
China is once more sweetly turning the big dial marked infrastructure spending to boost its economy, when it already has far more infrastructure than it needs, writes David Fickling. Bloomberg Newsletter, 22/05/01

04 - 05/05/2022  


In the Vineyard II, 1898, by Elin Danielson-Gambogi

06 - 05/05/2022
 


Australia's AgriDigital raises $17.7m to digitize grain value chain chain, Global AgInvesting, by Lynda Kiernan-Stone

Based in Australia, AgriDigital has just raised $17.65 million in a combination of debt and equity funding in support of its mission to grow the value of grain through its combined inventory management software and finance platform.

Co-founded by farmers Bob McKay, Ben Reid, and Emma Weston, AgriDigital was originally backed by Square Peg Capital and one of Australia’s largest family offices through its first funding round in 2017. Two years later, in 2019, the startup brought on San Francisco-based food system investor 1st Course Capital, while Square Peg increased its stake in the company. Today, AgriDigital announced that it has broadened its investor base to now include an unidentified global investor experienced in debt financing.

Since its launch, AgriDigital has grown to be the largest digital grain management platform in Australia, claiming 14,000 users accounting for 15 percent of the country’s grain production transacted at the sale, delivery, or storage point.
…/…
See globalaginvesting.com


Italian Family, 1900, by Elin Danielson-Gambogi

07 - 05/05/2022
 



La vague de chaleur en Inde (vu dans la newsletter de Bloomberg) / The heat wave in India (seen in the Bloomberg newsletter)

05 - 05/05/2022  


US diesel price boom

06 - 05/05/2022  


5 African climate-smart agriculture investors helping close a $106bn finance gap Earth Day! AFN, by Lucy Ngige

Since 1970, the world has celebrated Earth Day, a day that focuses on green living and tackling the environmental crisis. Through Earth Day, humans have been made aware of the harm they cause to the environment.  They have also been enlightened about how they can protect it; many human activities need to be regulated to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Key among them is agriculture, which generates roughly 18% of total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, second only to the energy sector.

Mitigation requires financing, however. There are global efforts to finance climate-smart agriculture but The Climate Policy Initiative reveals that current global climate finance flows are nowhere near the estimated $4.5 – $5 trillion needed annually. Additionally, of the $560 billion available for global climate finance, only 1.5% is provided for small-scale agriculture.

Furthermore, some regions are lagging others. According to a recently-launched ISF report, agri-SMEs in developing countries do not have sufficient funding and there’s a $106 billion financing gap in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

There are a few noteworthy climate-smart agriculture investors and ecosystem enablers in Africa working to improve access to financing for climate-smart agriculture including financiers and accelerators. Here are a few examples.
.../..
See agfundernews.com/


On the Way Home in the Evening Light, 1901, by Elin Danielson-Gambogi

08 - 05/05/2022
 


Gazette de vitisphere.com,
portail vitivinicole

 



Ag Carbon Market Map: Meet the 58 companies helping to harness the benefits of regenerative farming, AFN, by guest contributor: Matthew Guinness

The trade in voluntary carbon credits exceeded $1 billion in 2021, a 3x increase year-on-year and a significant milestone in demonstrating that it’s a functional market. With increasing recognition of the role of nature-based solutions in reaching ‘net zero,’ the voluntary carbon market has established itself as an important part of climate change mitigation and is expected to continue to expand rapidly in the next five to 10 years; McKinsey estimates that the market could be worth as much as $50 billion by 2030.

However, so far, agriculture’s contribution has not grown as fast as the wider market and remains a small fraction of the total despite its vast potential as a carbon sink.

Harnessing the promise of agri-carbon markets and the scale of agriculture has its own particular challenges; the early history of agri-carbon markets has been characterized by unmet promises and false dawns. But these obstacles are surmountable with smart program design and innovative tech solutions, offering the industry a clear path to success and scale.

Foremost among the challenges that need to be tackled is reliable and cost-effective monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV). This is hard to deliver – and even harder to scale. An EU report on carbon farming summarized the MRV challenge thus: “It is not feasible or cost-efficient to measure data on-site in the restoration area in real time for all indicators continuously, so schemes would have to rely partially on modelled data, spot checks, and reference data.”

Hummingbird and others in the space are combining multi-source remote-sensing capabilities with robust ground-truth data validation to push the boundaries of accuracy and ensure models can scale effectively. Meanwhile, many of the new generation of carbon programs — such as those offered by Agreena and Nori — are bringing an improved user experience for farmers and seamless integration of remote-sensing MRV to tackle the scalability challenge.
…/…
See agfundernews.com


 
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Potato Harvesters, 1893, by Elin Danielson-Gambogi

09 - 05/05/2022
 


Barley orders soil bacteria to manufacture ammonia fertiliser

Scientists have accomplished a key step in the long-term ambition to engineer nitrogen-fixation into non-legume cereal crops by demonstrating that barley can instruct soil bacteria to convert nitrogen from the air into ammonia fertiliser.

This development empowers non-legume crops to communicate directly with nitrogen-fixing bacteria and takes us a step closer to reducing our reliance on synthetic fertilisers.

The world’s human population consumes more than half their calories from three crops – rice, wheat and maize. However, these crops rely heavily on the application of synthetic fertilisers like nitrogen. The industrial production of nitrogen in the form of ammonia requires a high consumption of fossil fuels and the over-application of fertilisers can also leach into water bodies and release potent greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

With the Earth’s atmosphere made up of 78% nitrogen, wouldn’t it be great if plants could convert the nitrogen in the air into their own fertiliser? Well they can.
.../...
See cropsciencecentre.org


Brexit: a bad deal

07 - 05/05/2022  


Investissements dans les substituts aux produits de la mer / Investments in seafood substitutes

08 - 05/05/2022  


The economic situation in France is not really more delicate nor better than that of the USA, Germany, England, Italy...

09 - 05/05/2022  


The populist government of Mexico has forgotten that exporting to the USA may be useful

10 - 05/05/2022  


Russians plunder $5M farm vehicles from Ukraine -- to find they've been remotely disabled

By Olexsandr Fylyppov and Tim Lister, CNN   -   Updated 0230 GMT (1030 HKT) May 2, 2022

(CNN)Russian troops in the occupied city of Melitopol have stolen all the equipment from a farm equipment dealership -- and shipped it to Chechnya, according to a Ukrainian businessman in the area.

But after a journey of more than 700 miles, the thieves were unable to use any of the equipment -- because it had been locked remotely.

Over the past few weeks there's been a growing number of reports of Russian troops stealing farm equipment, grain and even building materials - beyond widespread looting of residences. But the removal of valuable agricultural equipment from a John Deere dealership in Melitopol speaks to an increasingly organized operation, one that even uses Russian military transport as part of the heist.

CNN has learned that the equipment was removed from an Agrotek dealership in Melitopol, which has been occupied by Russian forces since early March. Altogether it's valued at nearly $5 million. The combine harvesters alone are worth $300,000 each.

CNN is not naming a contact in Melitopol familiar with the details of the case for their own safety.

The contact said the process began with the seizure of two combine harvesters, a tractor and a seeder. Over the next few weeks, everything else was removed: in all 27 pieces of farm machinery. One of the flat-bed trucks used, and caught on camera, had a white "Z" painted on it and appeared to be a military truck.

The contact said there were rival groups of Russian troops: some would come in the morning and some in the evening.

Some of the machinery was taken to a nearby village, but some of it embarked on a long overland journey to Chechnya more than 700 miles away. The sophistication of the machinery, which are equipped with GPS, meant that its travel could be tracked. It was last tracked to the village of Zakhan Yurt in Chechnya.

The equipment ferried to Chechnya, which included combine harvesters -- can also be controlled remotely. "When the invaders drove the stolen harvesters to Chechnya, they realized that they could not even turn them on, because the harvesters were locked remotely," the contact said.

The equipment now appears to be languishing at a farm near Grozny. But the contact said that "it seems that the hijackers have found consultants in Russia who are trying to bypass the protection."

"Even if they sell harvesters for spare parts, they will earn some money," the contact said.

Other sources in the Melitopol region say theft by Russian military units has extended to grain held in silos, in a region that produces hundreds of thousands of tonnes of crops a year.

One source told CNN that "the occupiers are offering local farmers to share their profits 50% to 50%." But the farmers trying to work in areas occupied by Russian troops are unable to move their produce.

"Not a single elevator works. None of the ports are working. You will not take this grain from the occupied territory anywhere. "

So Russian forces are simply taking the grain, the source said. "They steal it, take it to Crimea and that's it."

Last week the mayor of Melitopol posted a video showing a convoy of trucks leaving Melitopol allegedly loaded with grain.

"We have clear evidence that they unloaded grain from the Melitopol city elevator. They robbed the elevator along with private farms," the mayor told CNN.
See edition.cnn.com


No Respect for Reality: The EU’s Food Security Crisis Strategy, by RISKMONGER on APRIL 24, 2022

.../...
This Commission Communication should serve as a timestamp of the highwater mark of the arrogance of affluence, where European ideologues pursued environmental cult policies without serious dialogue or compromise. They relentlessly pushed their Green Deal through the pandemic and now through a major war, food security and refugee crisis in Europe. In over two years, the Farm2Fork strategy has been seriously criticised by most scientific bodies (including the Commission’s own Joint Research Centre) and not once, not by one iota, have they compromised their unrealistic ambitions or listened to others. This puritan commitment to enforcing a failed strategy could be considered as admirable (from a Lysenkian perspective), but it belies an ideological arrogance that can only be tolerated by affluent activists who could afford the dreadful consequences of their medieval food beliefs.

World events are starting to bite Frans Timmermans and Ursula von der Leyen in the face. The European Commission cannot continue to lead by ideology and solve the consequences of their failures simply by throwing money around. The cupboard is bare – Europe is not self-sufficient in food production. Brussels is not in a position to feed the world so how much more to lecture others and demand that their impractical ideologies be followed.

It is time for Ursula and Frans to give up their rainbow and unicorn view of the world and embrace realpolitik – policies built on compromise and pragmatic solutions. I fear though that they cannot and given that an electorate cannot throw them out, I anticipate that Brussels will quickly become irrelevant as national leaders across the EU simply wait for them to complete their term of office. They will be quickly forgotten; seen as dinosaurs of a failed policy approach, representatives of lost opportunities and a lasting symbol of the waste of Europe’s peace dividend.

This Commission Communication expresses the delusional thinking of a failed leadership that has no observational skills or commitment to policy process. The world has moved on, innovative talent has left and Europe has lost relevance.
See risk-monger.com



Frederick McKinley Jones, a prolific American inventor who helped to transform the global economy

Put simply, Jones made it possible to eat fresh produce from anywhere in the world all year round.
See humanprogress.org/


Here's a different perspective on life expectancy.

The average woman born in 1960 had about a fifty percent chance of surviving to age 65 based on the mortality rates that year.
 
The average man had a 43 percent chance.

By 2019, that increased to 81 and 73 percent, respectively.



Girls picking Fruit, by Hugo Salmson, Gothenburg Museum of Art

10 - 05/05/2022
 


The ban on abortion in the USA, a complete return to the past?

11- 05/05/2022  


Brexit, a monumental mistake!

12- 05/05/2022  


Modern Agriculture & Sustainability, April 22, 2022, by the farmer’s daughter USA

Modern agriculture and sustainability go hand in hand. Here’s some examples of production methods used by farmers to take sustainability seriously.


  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8


Jewish stupid joke

Bridegroom: homme à marier
Shadchan: entremetteur
To squint: loucher
To limp : boiter

A prospective bridegroom is taken by the shadchan to the home of a potential bride.

The bridegroom takes one look at her and whispers to the shadchan:

 “Why did you bring me here? She’s old, she’s ugly, she has bad teeth, she squints and she seems to have a limp.”

And the shadchan replies:

“You don’t need to lower your voice, she’s also deaf.”


Le Pen would agree

   


 


The distribution of this efita newsletter is sponsored by vitisphere.com

Please, contribute to the content of your efita newsletter, and advertise your events, new publications, new products and new project in this newsletter. Without your support, it will not survive!
Contact: Guy WAKSMAN
E-mail: guy.waksman(a)laposte.net


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Do not miss the Virus Jokes in English and French

Blagues de janvier – février 2021
Coronavirus 1 
Coronavirus 3
Ant joke
Virus 1
Virus 3
Virus 5 
Histoires drôles de l'oncle Paul (Jamet)
Dernières histoires de Michel Gil-Antoli
Et encore... 
Et celles de mars-avril 2021
Special "Biblical studies"
Celles de juillet 2021 en français et en anglais, dont 17 sur le virus en bas de page)
Blague d'octobre 2021
Suite des blagues d'octobre 2021
Blagues de décembre 2021
(22 in English, 10 de P. Jamet)
Seconde vague 2022 de blagues
(nouvelles)
Coronavirus 2
Coronavirus 4
Virus et autres sujets
Virus 2
Virus 4
Virus 6
Histoires drôles de Georges Larroque

Les dernières histoires de Jean Pinon
Et encore

Tout sur le vaccin
Celles de mail 2021
Celles de juin 2021
Celles d'août

Celles de septembre
Le dico de Paul J.
Blagues de novembre 2021

Premières blagues de 2022


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