Dairy farmers and professionals will get to witness demonstrations of automatic milking systems during EuroTier 2026 from 10–13 November in Hanover, Germany

The exhibition will display different approaches to robotic milking under identical practical conditions, and visitors can pick the ideal conditions suiting them.

The Barn Robot Event is part of the new EuroTier Milky Way feature, a curated exhibition format bringing together innovations and solutions from across the entire dairy value chain.

This year, GEA, BouMatic and Lely will present their solutions for automatic milking in moderated live demonstrations. Rather than showcasing individual products in isolation, the format allows visitors to compare different automation concepts within the same operational scenarios.

The aim is to help dairy farmers evaluate which approach best fits their own herd size, barn infrastructure and management strategy.

“During the Barn Robot Event, each manufacturer will showcase live how its system works. Through a live feed from the robot to a large LED screen, visitors can follow every detail of the milking process in real time while also being able to observe the robot directly on site.

"This provides an even deeper insight into, and a clearer comparison of, the different milking solutions offered by the manufacturers. The demonstrations will be moderated and accompanied by experts from the participating companies, giving attendees the opportunity to ask questions directly," said Marieke Werth, project manager for the Barn Robot Event.

“The Barn Robot Event therefore offers a neutral overview of different technologies, with this year's focus being automated milking. Its key advantage is that visitors can see and compare all solutions in one place, making it easy to gather information and assess the various approaches side by side,” she added.

The demonstrations will reflect on three practical situations that primarily drive investment decisions on modern dairy farms:

• Conversion of an existing dairy barn from a conventional milking parlour to an automatic milking system with two robots and approximately 100 cows.
• Construction of a new dairy facility using six milking robots for around 300 cows.
• Automatic milking concepts for large-scale dairy operations with approximately 800 cows.
• These herd sizes serve as reference scenarios for comparison. In addition, exhibitors will present further practical examples and operational concepts for a wide range of farm sizes and production systems. 

Visitors can catch the demonstrations live at Hall 13, Stand E43. 

JBT Marel has launched SensorX Xpress, a new advanced X-ray image‑processing algorithm that promises up to 20% higher inspection capacity while maintaining proven detection accuracy

The SensorX inspection system will not compromise food safety or product quality even when matching the rapid evolution of poultry processors, which are continuously growing to offer higher speeds, larger birds and increasing volumes. 

Its higher than usual conveyor speeds secure throughput and reliability for advanced poultry operations. The system generates boosted output while eliminating the need for equipment, labour or risk.

As processing lines accelerate, inspection often becomes a bottleneck. More product entering inspection in less time means that capacity, consistency, and trust in detection performance are essential. With Xpress software integrated, SensorX is able to inspect more products per hour while continuing to accurately detect residual bones and other hard contaminants.

This capacity increase allows processors to fully utilize upstream equipment such as high-speed deboners, while keeping food safety standards intact and production running smoothly.

SensorX has been in the market for 20 years, safeguarding risks related to residual bones in deboned products during poultry processing. Over the years, SensorX has evolved to include SmartBase, Infeed Monitoring, and Adaptive Bone Detection, featuring an upgraded X-ray sensor. Now SensorX Xpress builds further on this foundation.

The Xpress upgrade delivers consistent and reliable inspection performance, also at the highest line speeds. Processors benefit from improved food safety, fewer false rejects, stable operations, and strong brand protection. At the same time, SensorX remains simple to operate and maintain, with minimal need for operator intervention. This allows plants to run efficiently, even when staffing levels are limited.

Bambara groundnuts, an underrated African crop, can potentially diversify crop production and significantly contribute to food security, as per scientists' studies conducted on indigenous crops

Simulate 49 growing seasons based on 50 years of climate and soil data, scientists have found October to be the ideal time for the highest yields as it marks the onset of monsoon in the region. Planting any later than that exposes the crop to frost, reducing growth potential. 

As climate change and drought are increasingly affecting the growth of mainstream crops like maize, wheat and rice, indigenous crops are emerging as the best alternatives because of its high drought tolerance capacity.

Crops like bambara groundnuts (Vigna subterranea) are nutrient-rich, carrying vital minerals, including fiber, protein and zinc, iron and calcium. 

Researcher Richard Kunz stressed on the urgency of educating farmers about different kinds of indigenous crops to build climate resilience.

Using the Food and Agriculture Organization AquaCrop model, the scientists simulated growing conditions across 5,838 altitude zones in South Africa, Lesotho and Eswatini, accounting for daily rainfall, air temperature, water retention, planting dates and plant density. The model analyzed growing seasons from 1950 to 1999.

“Our research stops smallholders from gambling their livelihoods on land suitability maps based on long-term climate averages, giving them and extension officers practical advice to ensure reliable crop production,” Kunz said.

At the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali in September, more than 5,000 delegates representing over 50 countries considered a fundamental question: what tangible difference does investment make?

The discussion highlighted that Africa already has evidence of effective solutions. By Sofia Tesfazion, IRRI regional director for Africa

The challenge now is to establish the conditions needed to finance, implement and expand these initiatives by linking proven approaches with supportive policies, institutions, funding and markets to deliver lasting results. As CGIAR noted in Kigali, impact depends on science, evidence, policy, delivery systems and finance working together to move innovations beyond pilot projects and towards wider adoption.

Rice is central to this wider discussion.

Rice has become one of Africa’s most important and rapidly evolving food and economic commodities. Across sub-Saharan Africa, demand is rising faster than for any other staple, and the region accounts for approximately one-third of global rice imports. Africa’s annual rice import bill, estimated at more than US$6bn, illustrates both the size of the market and the opportunity for local farmers and businesses to capture greater value through stronger domestic and regional rice value chains.

It is encouraging that discussions about rice are increasingly moving beyond production volumes to consider the broader systems required to connect more than 35 million African smallholder rice farmers with markets. These include access to reliable seed, irrigation and water management, mechanisation, finance, processing, quality standards, logistics, market information, employment and trade.

These priorities align with the African Union’s CAADP Strategy and Action Plan 2026–2035 and the CAADP Kampala Declaration. The framework aims to increase agrifood output by 45%, reduce post-harvest losses by half, triple intra-African agrifood trade and mobilise US$100bn in investment. It also highlights the need to ensure that investment benefits farmers and businesses while helping keep food affordable for consumers.

Agricultural transformation requires commercially sustainable and resilient value chains that create value for everyone involved. Farmers, businesses, financial institutions and markets need to operate as connected parts of the same system. Examples of this approach are already emerging.

During the Kigali forum, six countries, Nigeria, Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Ghana and Sierra Leone, launched the US$500mn West Africa Rice Investment Facility. The ECOWAS Bank for Investment and Development committed US$100mn. The initiative aims to combine public and private investment to support financing, agricultural inputs, processing capacity and private-sector partnerships throughout the rice value chain. It also builds on the ECOWAS Regional Rice Roadmap 2025–2035, demonstrating how West African countries are working collectively to shape their regional rice agenda.

However, Africa’s rice sector cannot be developed through a single model. Countries have distinct production systems, market conditions, constraints and objectives, and several are already demonstrating the results of targeted national strategies.

Tanzania has progressed beyond rice self-sufficiency, recording a self-sufficiency ratio of 112% in 2023/24 and supplying neighbouring countries. Ethiopia has designated rice a National Flagship Program. According to the country’s Ministry of Agriculture, smallholder rice cultivation expanded from 60,000 to 1.7 million hectares over five years, while imports declined by two-thirds.

Kenya is pursuing an irrigation-led strategy. Through its Rice Intensification Project, the National Irrigation Authority (NIA) aims to address the national rice deficit by increasing annual paddy production from approximately 300,000 tonnes to one million tonnes. It is expanding and rehabilitating irrigation schemes in coastal and western Kenya to bring more land into rice production.

The rehabilitation of schemes including Mwea, Ahero, Lower Kuja and South West Kano helped raise paddy production from approximately 192,000 tonnes in 2022 to around 305,000 tonnes in 2025. Farmers, millers and seed producers have also adopted Komboka, a high-yielding variety developed in collaboration with IRRI and the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO), following their involvement in its selection.

Recognising these national differences is essential to building partnerships around priorities identified by individual countries. Continental cooperation can help connect national experiences and strategies, while the African Union’s Agenda 2063 provides a long-term framework for transformation through sustainable development, regional integration, trade, science and technology, and private-sector growth.

Against this backdrop, the Global Rice Policy Dialogue, scheduled for 15–16 October in Addis Ababa, will bring together African and Asian perspectives. The event is co-hosted by the African Union’s Department of Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy, and Sustainable Environment (ARBE) and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), in partnership with AfricaRice and the CGIAR Policy Innovations Science Program. It is co-organised with the Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR).

The Dialogue will give policymakers and experts an opportunity to examine how national decisions on rice production, competitiveness, reserves and trade influence markets across borders. Discussions will also consider practical approaches to building more resilient and predictable rice markets.

Participants will explore how countries can strengthen their rice industries while balancing sustainable production, competitiveness, farmers’ livelihoods, consumer interests, reserves and trade amid growing market uncertainty. The Dialogue also aims to establish a shared platform for examining the cross-border effects of national policies, testing potential responses to market shocks and identifying practical measures for national implementation and voluntary regional coordination.

Kigali placed the spotlight on what investment can change. In Addis Ababa, the focus for rice will be on making that change sustainable. Progress will depend on science, effective policies, strong systems and cooperation working together, enabling African countries to strengthen the growth and competitiveness of their rice sectors and navigate an increasingly interconnected global rice market on their own terms.