The success of the desk area
The 2016 edition of the exposition of agricultural and gardening machinery brought in the brand new EIMA Desk, a pavilion with a window dedicated to dissemination of information. A large number of visitors enlivened the INAIL Live Shop area. Another positive feature was the training events handled by Mech@griJobs
The EIMA Desk – Training & Safety scored a great success at EIMA International in the pavilion set up by FederUnacoma, the Italian Agricultural Machinery Manufacturers Federation, and UNACMA, the National Union of Agricultural Machinery Dealers, for providing information through a window for visitors. The EIMA Desk, with its first appearance at the exposition, took on increasing importance for great numbers of visitors to the Bologna trade fair due to services for the public from updates on incentives, financial instruments available, the procedure for access to these instruments for acquiring agricultural machinery and on to the management of machinery and equipment.
Live Shop: an interactive area dedicated
to new revision regulations
One of the EIMA Desk high-profile initiatives was the Live Revision Shop where technicians and qualified personnel illustrated the procedures and key factors for the technical verifications for the revision of tractors for business people and workers in the sector. According to data reported by the organizers, from November 9 through 13 the shop attracted more than 1,000 participants. Legislation on the mandatory revision of agricultural machinery was passed on June 30, 2017 but the decrees required to enact the law are still pending. On this crucial issue, expectations are that this regulation will be applied in the near future to involve many farmers and business people in agricultural mechanics. On these points, Domenico Papaleo from the FederUnacoma Technical Office said, “Our tractor inventory is made up of about 1.6 million units of more than twenty years of age. As many as 700,000 are not equipped with ROPS which, if the tractor rolls over, can save the lives of drivers from being crushed, one of the leading and most frequent causes of death in agriculture.” ROPS, Rollover Protection Structures, are, however, not the only equipment requirement for meeting revision qualifications. Others involve careful checks of the size and wear of tires, verification of the field of vision and ensuring that there are no obstacles blocking the operator’s view and protection devices against the components which heat up and those in motion.
Revision also requires great attention to driving components, lights and exhaust emissions. In summary, the technicians at the EIMA International event explained in immediate and easy to understand terms the steps needed to bring tractors up to compliance with standards to avoid the fines applied for failure to do so.
INAIL Window: a window on the institute’s services
INAIL, the National Institute for Accidents at Work Insurance, operated a window in the EIMA Desk area which took on considerable importance due to the financing the institute will make available for the purchase of agricultural machinery with high levels of safety with the distribution of funds totaling € 45 million.
Farmers intending to make use of this financing were able to use the window for information on the ways and means of the procedure required. INAIL personnel were available for vis a vis explanations of the institute’s mission focused especially on safety in agriculture and answering curious visitors.
Training up front
Another great attraction were the training meetings related to the Mech@griJOBS Project in numerous sessions which drew crowds of young people to score another big success in the setting of EIMA International. The Mech@griJOBS event, sponsored by UNACMA, was organized to provide high school students with an understanding of agricultural mechanics and inform them of professional profiles and job opportunities in the agro-mechanics supply chain. Training was also dealt with in courses for learners’ licenses for driving tractors – a very timely issue in light of the arrival of new regulations for driving agricultural machinery. The courses were set up for drivers with prior experience who were promoted during the exposition.
Partners’ initiatives
Other than the training events and the INAIL window, the EIMA Desk also featured a full schedule of conferences and seminars: the press conference staged by CLIMMAR, a European association of agricultural machinery dealers; a conference on updating the UNACMA ROC Project; an AEF/ FederUnacoma/UNACMA conference entitled Know the End-user, the Importance of ISOBUS in Current Agricultural Mechanization dedicated to the new frontier of electronics and IT applications; an ESSECI conference on the issue of Invest in Safety, INAIL Financing; an A.N.C.O.R.S. meeting on Safety in Agriculture: Evaluating Risks and Mandatory Training. Also on the schedule were meetings on sound schooling entitled Challenges and Opportunities in Alternating School-Work handled in a conference promoted by CAI, UNIMA and CONFAI.
On bioenergy, ITABIA, the Italian Biomass Association, sponsored a conference on these biomass issues with the University of Tuscia.
Dealers: the Climmar agenda
Climmar is the body that represents internationally the associations of European agricultural machinery dealers. It currently includes sixteen countries, including Italy, for a total of approximately 16,900 dealers with an area of penetration that reaches 3.4 million farmers. At the EU level, Climmar is fighting on the one hand to counter the liberalization of the market for maintenance and repair of agricultural machinery, and on the other to promote the prerogatives and the professional competence of the dealers, focusing on increasingly effective staff training. The association’s goal is also to expand its pool of members by involving other countries, and to improve the profitability of the repair and maintenance sector.
