Technical Sections III: Plant Production

INTRODUCTION

Equipment Engineering for Plants

Engineering of equipment and systems to produce plants, including equipment design, manufacture, and use to establish plants, protect plants, harvest plant products, and transportation of agricultural produce. Engineering of components and systems for improved productivity, efficiency, and sustainability.

Members:

Washington State University

US United States

TEL:

E-mail: manoj.karkee@wsu.edu

The School of engineering 35 Stirling HWY Crawley (Perth), University of Western Australia, Western Australia 6009,... read-more

AU Australia

TEL: +618 6488 3883

E-mail: andrew.guzzomi@uwa.edu.au

Secretary: Assoc. Prof. Hiwa Golpira

University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj

IR Iran, Islamic Republic of

TEL:

E-mail: h.golpira@uok.ac.ir

Bavarian State Research Center for Agriculture, Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Animal Husbandry, Voettinger... read-more

DE Germany

TEL: +49 8161 715830

E-mail: markus.demmel@LFL.bayern.de

Polytechnic University of Valencia, Departamento de Ingeniería Rural y Agroalimentaria, Unidad de Mecanización y... read-more

ES Spain

TEL: +34-963877291

E-mail: frovira@dmta.upv.es

Honorary Chairs/Members:

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department - University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA

US United States

TEL: +1-352-392-0822

E-mail: schuejk@ufl.edu

Washington State University, Irrigated Agriculture Research & Extension Center, 24106 N. Bunn Road, Prosser, WA... read-more

US United States

TEL: +1-509-786-9360

E-mail: qinzhang@wsu.edu

Mission, Objectives, Scope and Activities

Mission:

The mission of Section III is to promote the advancement of the engineering science and engineering design through fundamental and applied research related to plant production. The Section acts as an umbrella organization for national committees to promote, co-organize, and coordinate international activities, such as conferences, workshops, and/or networks, pertaining to mechanization, automation and digital farming approaches for modern crop production systems.

Objectives:

  • Advancement of new technologies for sustainable plant production; 
  • Promotion of new technical solutions to improve mechanization and automation for cropping systems;
  • Networking and enhanced communication among participating scientists and engineers from around the world;  
  • Providing opportunities for global professional leadership;
  • Assessment of social and economic impacts of new plant production technologies on rural communities

Scope:

Considering the objectives defined as above, the scope of CIGR-Section III refers to the following main subject areas:

  • Agricultural machinery and power units for field and controlled environment plant production
  • Mechanization, automation, robotics (aerial and ground) and autonomous operations for entire crop production cycle (from soil preparation to harvest and transport)
  • No-till, reduced till, strip-till and controlled traffic plant production practices (taking into account carbon sequestration indicators and key indicators of decarbonization in agricultural ecosystems)
  • Precision agriculture technologies such as automatic guidance and variable rate application of agricultural inputs. This area also includes digital control systems and sensing and data analytics for monitoring the current and predicted condition of plants in field production environment.
  • ISOBUS and other standards related to modern plant production equipment

 

Activities:

Section III organized the 5th CIGR Agricultural Mechanization Next Leaders events, which was held 12-19 July, 2017 in the USA. A total of 25 delegates from 14 countries participated in this 5-day event. The group visited two leading agricultural equipment manufacturers (John Deere, and CNH), toured Washington modern (mechanization-ready) orchards, and Washington State University Center for Precision and Automated Agricultural Systems. In addition to the technical visits, the group attended the 2017 ASABE International Meeting in Spokane, Washington.
Section III compiled and published a booklet entitled “CIGR Agricultural Mechanization Next Leaders” in 2016.  It collected short biographies and contact information of all the participants of the five Next Leaders Events, and has been distributed to the CIGR headquarters, leading agricultural manufacturers around the world, relevant national committees, research centers, and academic institutions, as well as among the participants in the events.
In terms of conference organization, Section III has co-organized both the 4th CIGR International Conference of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR-AgEng2016) held in Aarhus, Denmark (26-29 June, 2016) and the XIX CIGR World Congress held in Antalya, Turkey (22-26 April, 2018).  In addition, Section III has co-sponsored the 5th IFAC Conference on Sensing, Control and Automation for Agriculture (AgriControl 2016) in Seattle, USA (4-17 August, 2016).

Events organized by Section III

Title Date Event type Location Country
6th CIGR Agricultural Mechanization Next Leaders Tue, 05/11/2019 to Tue, 12/11/2019 Workshop Germany DE Germany
The XIX CIGR World Congress 2018 Sun, 22/04/2018 to Thu, 26/04/2018 Congress Antalya TR Turkey
4th CIGR International Conference of Agricultural Engineering (CIGR-AgEng2016) Sun, 26/06/2016 to Wed, 29/06/2016 Conference Aarhus DK Denmark