EIMA Agrimach: A melting pot of agri-tech from around the world

Bengaluru: The EIMA Agrimach India, an agriculture exhibition at the University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, which began on Thursday, has brought together a wide range of farm machinery and equipment from various agri-companies and startups.

The event hosts buyers and farmers from around the world, including Italy, Guatemala, Nigeria, Syria, Uganda, Sri Lanka, and Japan, among others. Foreign buyers and visitors from over 40 countries are showcasing their respective countries’ innovations at the exhibition.

Addressing the 8th edition of EIMA, the Consul General of the Consulate General of Italy in Bangalore, Alfonso Tagliaferri, highlighted the burgeoning trade relationship between Italy and India, with a particular focus on agricultural machinery, which constitutes about 5% of Italy’s exports to India. ‘The balance of trade between Italy and India is on the uptick, and agricultural machinery is a key component of this trade,’ he stated, underscoring the mutual interest in bolstering bilateral trade ties.

Alluding to the enduring Indo-Italian partnership and the shared ambition to expand trade, Tagliaferri highlighted the unique suitability of Italian machinery for speciality crops prevalent in South India, emphasizing the long-term economic benefits despite the higher initial costs.

Mariateresa Maschio, President of FEDERUNACOMA, remarked, “India represents one of the most important countries not only for the production of crops, vegetables and fruits, but also for the production of tractors, and not only tractors.”

Guna Nand Shukla, Director of Agriculture and Natural Resources at PwC, advocated for gender-friendly farm equipment, highlighting the crucial role of women in agriculture and the need for customized machinery to suit India’s diverse agricultural landscape. Moreover, he underscored the importance of aligning farm equipment with the needs of small farmers in the country.

With a boom in artificial intelligence and machine learning in the current agricultural industry, the exhibition features startups that produce fully electric tractors and AI-powered fertilizer sprayers aimed at facilitating efficient farming methods, alongside 300 various exhibitors from India and abroad.

Speaking to DH, Filibus N Bitrus, a Nigerian businessman, mentioned that wood chippers and shredders have great potential in the Nigerian scene, considering the huge market for livestock and fisheries in Nigeria.

“Farming technologies and agricultural equipment industries are still developing in Nigeria. Here, I saw herbicide sprayer machines and wood chippers, which would be very useful to farmers in Nigeria, given that maize is an important crop with livestock and fisheries that require a huge supply of feeders. With equipment such as chippers, we will be able to efficiently produce large quantities of feeders,” he said.