Vision of the Future event at the AGCO Future Farm in Zambia – A youth perspective

By Nyasha Mudukuti, AGCO Africa Ambassador 2016

Under the theme “Vision of the Future” AGCO held a farm mechanisation event between the 6th and 8th of April 2016 at its Future Farm in Zambia. l had the opportunity to take part – and when I arrived l thought for a moment l was not in Africa. It was the most majestic agricultural place l have ever been to and it reminded me of the farms l once saw in Iowa, USA. For me, to see this farm in Africa was like a wakeup call to the African agriculture sector. In short, it’s just a state of the art farming center.

The 2016 official opening of the Future Farm was marked with great presentations and demonstrations. Among others, young people including Alan Jagoe, President of the European Council of Young Farmers, Dalitso Mbewe, Deputy Secretary General Southern Africa of the Pan African Youth Union, and Jean Kaahwa, AGCO‘s Africa Ambassador in 2015, shared their views on the agriculture sector. I also had the opportunity to test drive the latest mechanisation equipment, the 3D tractor – I loved it! – and to visit the mechanization learning center as well as the grain and poultry center. Each of these facilities are designed to show the pride of the African farming sector in a new angle. To see that AGCO has set a pace in not only designing products that have Africa in mind but also in working towards a sustainable future and providing modern farming practices, served as an inspiration to me as a young person.

The Future Farm serves as a great knowledge transfer facility. It is destined to change the way African farming has been perceived and definitely encourage farmers to embrace mechanization. Most importantly, it brings every farmer from the smallholder to the commercial farmers under one roof, to tap from one source.