Future trends in agricultural engineering

Abstract

Agricultural engineering is a multidisciplinary field of science. Beside the traditional mechanical engineering other engineering branches, electronics, control engineering and physics play their specific role within the agricultural engineering area. Agricultural engineering has affected and stimulated major changes in agriculture. In the last decades agricultural engineering also focusses on environmental aspects. Nowadays knowledge and expertise generated in several agricultural and environmental engineering fields must be integrated with expertise of biological and socio-economical sciences. In the evolution towards sustainable agricultural systems it is clear that important contributions can be made. The redesign of production systems and its technology can help to achieve an ecologically sound and economically viable agriculture and its acceptance in community.