CEMA Vice-President Alessandro Malavolti gave a keynote speech during the opening plenary of the first-ever Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Global Conference on the topic of agricultural mechanization. Mr. Malavolti underlined how farming is a private business, and it needs to be profitable so that farmers are able to invest in sustainability enhancing technologies. “Our industry has and develops technologies to allow farmers to make a positive impact on the environment. With our machines we can increase yields to feed a growing world population”.

Alessandro Malavolti

FAO Director-General QU Dongyu opened the conference works saying that "mechanisation and automation are powerful forces for change, but they must be sustainable and economically viable".

Europe is the biggest producer of agricultural machinery in the world. Open dialogue with farmers is always at the forefront of the manufacturers’ work, which was underlined by Mr. Malavolti’s intervention.

The Global Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanisation (GAMC), which took place from 27-29 September, marks the first time the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations holds such a high-level event on the topic. It is, in the words of FAO Deputy Director General Maria Helena Semedo, a historic moment for FAO.

CEMA is proud to have partnered with FAO to make the event possible, an effort recognized by FAO Deputy Director General Beth Bechdol in her opening speech. In particular, CEMA provided support to organize a unique machinery exhibition of farming equipment in the FAO premises. This is the first time agricultural equipment took such a prominent spot in FAO, and it offered a chance to showcase how innovative agricultural mechanization technologies can provide individualized solutions to all types of farmers. CEMA’s Vice-President Alessandro Malavolti opened the exhibition along with FAO’s high-level representatives.

The European Agricultural Machinery Association, has been cooperating with FAO since 2015, when a Memorandum of Understanding was signed to promote the potential of mechanization as a game-changer for farm work. The joint efforts to promote sustainable mechanization have been ongoing, and it will be important to keep this cooperation going for many years to come, turning concepts more and more into action. “Only if we work together, we can put an end to global hunger and improve the sustainability of agriculture” said Malavolti.

CEMA took the occasion to thank FAO Director-General QU Dongyu, FAO Deputy Director-General Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General Maria Helena Semedo and Josef Kienzle, Lead of the Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization team of FAO Plant Production and Protection Division.