Agri Con GmbH – aggricultural service company specialised on Precision Farming
Published on 06 February 2018
Germany
Chemnitz
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About this good practice
Precision Farming is a farming management concept based on observing and responding on intra-field variations with the target to optimize agricultural yields while preserving resources. Due to the fast development of technological solutions and applications new possibilities for farm management arise. It involves automation technology, robotic, sensor technology, high precision positioning systems e.g. GPS, Geo-Mapping, automated steering systems,digitization, big data, integrated electronic communication and bioengineering. The innovativeness can be seen in the connection between the traditionally developed agricultural sector and the novel solutions of the high-tech industry. Imagery and sensors allow to produce high detailed maps including information about soil type, nutrition levels in layers (e.g. of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, magnesium). The target group of the Agri Con GmbH are agricultural companies, cooperatives and agricultural machinery distributors. The transferability to other rural regions of the Precision Farming technology is ensured by the fact that rural regions are generally characterized by farms and agricultural use. The company seat is located in the middle between the 2 biggest municipalities of Leipzig and Dresden in the heart of Saxony. To attract the company for the necessary skilled employees working in the rural region they offer a save job in a future branch and flexible working time rules for a good work-life balance.
Resources needed
In terms of human resources Agri Con GmbH requires a high amount of skilled employees. Currently they have more than 60 employees in their head-quarter in Germany, 65% of them are engineers. Agri Con GmbH pursues an interdisciplinary approach.
Evidence of success
Agri Con GmbH can be seen as good practice because the company has become one of the leading companies in Precision Farming in middle and eastern Europe. They are active in 15 EU countries: Germany, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Austria, Serbia, Romania, Moldavia, Macedonia, Croatia, Slovenia, Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg. Agri Con is very innovative as they are participating in various projects also collaborating with universities and research institutions.
Potential for learning or transfer
Precision Farming can be considered as being potentially interesting for other regions because sustainable food supply can be considered as one of the main challenges in the future because of the rapidly growing world population esp. in the developing countries, the rising demand of agricultural products and limited availability of agricultural area and impacts of climate change. The business opportunities in Precision Farming were researched by Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, the biggest consultant company in Europe. They come to the conclusion that at the end of 2014 the global marked Precision Farming reached a volume of 2,3 billion € and the market is rapidly growing with a 12% rate per year until 2020. Currently the main marked is Europe and Northern America, but the main future potentials are in Asia and South America. Currently there is a lack of available technology and skilled employees, but growing rates of 20% per year are seen as realistic.
Further information
Website
Good practice owner
You can contact the good practice owner below for more detailed information.
Organisation
Aufbauwerk Region Leipzig GmbH
Germany
Leipzig