An Austrian company Technik-Plus has developed a cutting-edge Carbon Farming-technology in their Impuls-Centre in Mureck, Southern Austria, for sustainable and gently mechanized farming with a strong commitment to conservation and environmental sustainability and a special focus on African agriculture.
The company has been making inroads in several countries in Africa with significant sales in South Africa, Uganda, Gambia and Morocco. They are in talks with farmer’s organizations in Kenya and Nigeria with a targeted niche in semi-arid agriculture in many African nations.
The Austrian company says it has sales contacts in all 55 African countries and is looking at possibly developing local license assembly in specific countries for their tractors, which is expected to create local jobs and makes it a 50% African product.
Beside their pneumatic air seeders, the company also construct “exhaust-farming” systems, which means, they blow the carbon emissions of the tractor’s exhaust pipe back into the soil while seeding or tilling.
According to Regional Director MENA & Sub-Saharan Africa Thomas Kukovec, this new technology, doesn’t only reduce carbon emissions into the atmosphere, but rather boosts the plant’s growth significantly, as the HC (hydrocarbons) in the exhaust emissions activate microbial soil activity hydrocarbonoclastic bacteria.
“In spite of higher CO2 availability, the microorganisms’ metabolism fosters a stronger plant development, as it provides soil-bound nutrients and water. This reduces the need for chemical fertilizers and irrigation considerably and has also shown remarkable results in both tropical and semi-arid soils, thus becoming an indispensable asset to farming in climate-affected regions across the Global South.”
Field trial tests- especially in semi-arid drylands – have shown that the crop plants use the HC, N and CO2 sources of the exhaust fumes for their initial growth. In this way, the use of chemical fertilizers and the resulting costs can also be reduced, while simultaneously protecting the climate.
Kukovec notes the adaptability of the company’s products for climate battered soils of Africa. ” For heavily degraded or eroded soils in semi-arid regions, we suggest using our strip-till subsoiler and air-seeder combination Barbary Climate Falcon for longlasting deep-root fertilization with carbon emissions as well as for pasture and sorghum planting.”
The company has been well received by different farmers with a strong partnership with Uganda’s National Young Farmers Association (UNYFA). Technik-Plus – Carbon Farming Austria is an Austrian agri-tech company that develops and sells air seeders, planters, and cultivators for minimum tillage and no-till applications in tropical and subtropical countries of Africa, Latin America, Oceania, and Asia.
