Technology

Across the world, child labour is practised more in agriculture than in any other sector. This is despite the numerous hazards involved in farm work, including unprotected exposure to chemicals, working with potentially dangerous livestock, and carrying heavy loads over long distances. Moreover, a lack of access to quality education means these children not only suffer in terms of development, but are unlikely to escape the poverty trap. Janine Ryan investigates.

In a major step towards achieving complete autonomous driving for agricultural machinery, Valtra has joined forces with a telecommunications company to develop technology that enables tractors to be controlled remotely on the 5G network.

The dual nature of South Africa’s agricultural landscape precludes a one-size-fits-all approach to technology solutions. Small-scale farmers have limited budgets and challenges that cannot be solved without taking their distinctive circumstances into account.

Hennie Hattingh is responsible for original equipment sales at the Johannesburg branch of a major Southern African tyre and tube distributor. Stehan Cloete spoke to him about the effect of tyre pressure and tractor ballasting on fuel efficiency and productivity.

The South African irrigation and manufacturing company Agrico recently introduced a new GPS controller that offers users of its web-based irrigation control system a new solution for running pivots in a more energy-efficient way, thanks to better pressure control.

The Fendt IDEALDrive joystick steering system for combine harvesters eliminates the steering wheel in the brand’s IDEAL Combine series. The joystick steering solution promises to deliver greater visibility for less operator fatigue.

Only farmers know what it really takes to yield the best results, and only the right footwear can equip them to do that.

While it may be appealing to spend less on generic or counterfeit replacement parts, there is no substitute for the real thing, as the team at Husqvarna explains. You may spend less over the short term, but in the long term you will actually spend more.

The company FieldMicro has released a digital connectivity device that can be used to control a wide range of connected infrastructure, such as farm gates, irrigation equipment and machinery.

With today’s rapidly evolving digital technology, farmers have many options, but at a high cost. Discerning between the hype and the useful is therefore crucial to buying the right tools to increase profit. Digital and technology experts Rudie Raath and Stehan Cloete spoke to Lindi Botha.

Case IH introduced its brand-new, multipurpose JXE-Series tractors, suited for work in orchards and fields, at the Izmir AgroExpo 2020 in Turkey in February.

The combine is the single most capital-intensive piece of equipment on a grain farm. Utilising as much of its capacity as possible is important to overall farm efficiency, writes Stehan Cloete.