Agricultural machinery maker New Holland reveals plans for going green

Farmers Weekly reports that the sale of agricultural machinery has gone up in South Africa over the past two years and New Holland reveals plans for going green.

The farming website has credited this information to the South African Agricultural Machinery Association as per the latest sales reports.

Speaking for an agricultural machinery company, New Holland’s marketing manager in Southern Africa Jaco du Preez, said the boom in sales is largely due to the high prices of commodities.

Du Preez says that based on favourable weather conditions, local farmers and the agricultural industry has produced bumper maize, wheat, and soya bean crops, while the Russia-Ukraine conflict has driven the prices of these commodities even higher.

Despite the surge in commodity prices, Du Preez adds that it’s likely that the end of the commodity super-cycle is nigh and revealed plans to go green.

“Going green is one of the reasons CNH Industrial [which New Holland falls under] recently acquired Raven Technologies in the US,” he continued.

“Raven Technologies specialises in precision technology, as well as analysis of data. This allows for better efficiency in terms of weed identification, for example, which allows for a reduction in the use of chemicals and fertilisers. Ultimately, this reduces a farmer’s carbon footprint and the effect of agricultural production on the environment.”

Taking a look at their sales, the agricultural machinery maker, New Holland, registered a particular jump in the sale of combine harvesters in 2020/21 with a market of around 300 units in 2022 alone.

“There is a lot of opportunity for farmers to export their produce to international markets. While exporting to Europe is becoming more difficult, due to the Russia-Ukraine war, there is still plenty of opportunity for farmers to export commodities to other countries in Africa,” says Du Preez.

The New Holland manager added that South Africa is in a good position to assure not only its own food security but also to improve the food security of other countries on the continent.

“Farmers have produced high yields of good-quality crops over the past few years. Therefore, their cash flow is much better now than it has been for a while. We see this in the boom in machinery sales; farmers buying machinery is an indication of good yields,” he added.

“This is a good opportunity for farmers to invest in machinery with improved technology, as they are currently in a position to afford this.”

In this regard, New Holland developed a hydrogen-powered tractor in 2012, however, this tractor never made it to the commercial market.

“The hydrogen tractor didn’t take off because of the risks involved in compressed hydrogen. It is still used on CNH Industrial’s zero-emissions farm in Italy, but is unlikely to be released commercially,” he concluded.