Climate-adapted farm machinery

DW (English)

German agricultural machinery companies are reaping record profits — in part because farmers are upgrading to cope with climate change.

Transcript

00:00 Climate change is also making itself felt in Germany.

00:05 Thunderstorms, heavy rain and flooding are increasingly common.

00:10 Fertile soil is being washed away.

00:13 Drought is also a problem.

00:16 Often it barely rains for months on end.

00:19 Crops are withering on the fields and farmland is as dry as dust.

00:24 Not long ago, Hannes Gamer took over the family farm.

00:28 Is he afraid of climate change?

00:33 I'm not afraid of climate change.

00:35 We'll have to adapt, but that's true for every economic sector.

00:39 The most adaptable ones are the ones who survive,

00:41 and I think farming will meet that challenge.

00:46 The farm in north-central Germany has been in the family's hands for three generations.

00:52 Hannes Gamer and his father agree.

00:54 They want to farm their 400 hectares sustainably,

00:58 using as little synthetic fertilizers and pesticides as possible.

01:03 In the past, every farm had a plough like this one.

01:06 But the plough has been retired, and it's just rusting away.

01:10 Instead, Hannes Gamer decided to switch to a new method

01:14 that doesn't rely on tilling the soil.

01:17 When I plough my fields, the soil on the surface is dark brown.

01:22 That absorbs more heat from the sun and loses more water through evaporation.

01:30 The new method is called no-till farming.

01:33 By using machinery that minimizes soil disturbance,

01:37 less water evaporates and more ends up in the soil,

01:41 which is important during dry spells.

01:44 And the natural soil structure is preserved.

01:47 Stephan Kröger sells this new kind of machinery.

01:50 They're faster than traditional ones,

01:52 and the layout of the blades and rollers is also new.

01:56 They leave a crop residue on the ground, which protects the soil.

02:01 When you have a layer of mulch, meaning crop residue on top,

02:05 the soil cools off and less water evaporates from it.

02:11 During the planting season, Hannes Gamer also takes care

02:15 to keep the soil structure as intact as possible,

02:19 to help keep what water there is in the ground.

02:22 He uses a direct sowing machine to plant the seeds

02:26 in the moist soil underneath the crop residue.

02:32 He plants a variety of crops,

02:34 and even when there's little rain, his yield is good.

02:38 That's also because the no-till method helps create a healthy soil ecosystem.

02:44 Earthworms play an especially important role.

02:47 They burrow through the soil, which helps it soak up water like a sponge.

02:52 And it's a sustainable method of soil improvement,

02:55 because the earthworms are on the job year-round.

03:00 Worms are our most important employees.

03:03 They break down organic material on the surface

03:06 and turn it into humus underground.

03:08 So they fertilize the soil.

03:14 Without earthworms, water isn't absorbed well after a heavy rain.

03:19 It runs off in torrents, taking the topsoil with it.

03:23 An eroded stretch of land can take decades to regenerate.

03:28 German farm machinery manufacturers are reaping record profits,

03:33 an estimated 19 billion euros this year.

03:37 Köcherling is a family-owned company that sells machinery used in no-till

03:42 and shallow tillage farming and direct seeding.

03:45 Bigger, faster and wider are the watchwords of the industry.

03:50 Some of the machines sell for as much as a German luxury car.

03:56 We're seeing more mid-sized and large farms,

03:59 and financing is always related to the amount of land.

04:03 For a small farm, investing in such a large machine might not make sense.

04:08 But in a mid-sized to large farm, you have a lot more land to cover.

04:12 So given the economies of scale, a machine will pay for itself relatively quickly.

04:19 Hannes Gamer's aging root crop harvester

04:22 will also be replaced soon by a specially designed machine.

04:29 Its wide offset wheels help distribute the harvester's weight on the ground

04:34 so that it doesn't crush all the earthworms.

04:37 It's an expensive machine, so he's planning to buy it together

04:41 with a nearby family farm that's run by a friend.

04:46 You have to be willing to compromise, of course,

04:48 and you have to be on the same wavelength.

04:51 But I do think that this solution will become increasingly popular

04:54 for smaller family farms.

04:59 With the no-till method and solutions like these,

05:02 Hannes Gamer is convinced his farm can adapt to climate change.

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