September 28, 2021. AUGA group, Europe’s largest vertically integrated organic food producer, has developed and presented the world’s first hybrid biomethane and electric tractor for professional farm use – AUGA M1.
“We are ready to provide consumers around the world with food at no cost to nature. By eating such food, people themselves will make a positive impact on climate change daily. And we are sure that more and more people want to live like this,” says Kęstutis Juščius, CEO of AUGA group.
According to the CEO of AUGA group, the technology developed in Lithuania will help to create a food production model around the world that will reduce damage caused to nature.
“Three years ago, when we first calculated our emissions, we saw that as much as 30 per cent of them come from the use of fossil fuels on farms. There were simply no solutions to change it. That is why we have taken the lead in developing technologies that will allow us to create a new standard for sustainable agriculture and drastically reduce pollution throughout the food value chain. The first result of this work is a biomethane and electric tractor,” says K. Juščius.
According to him, the choice of biomethane as an alternative fuel was not accidental – it is one of the greenest types of biofuel. Methane, collected from livestock waste and converted to biomethane, offsets more emissions per unit of energy in its production and use cycle than it emits.
Until now, sustainable fuel tractors delivered worldwide have not been suitable for professional farm work. “Our invention makes it possible to create a wide range of tractor applications and make it accessible to all farmers who want to work sustainably. We are not developing technology just to solve own emissions and deliver on the promise of becoming a CO2-neutral company by 2030. Our goal is bigger – we will strive to make this tractor and other technologies that are still being developed available to farmers all over the world and help solve the global problem of pollution in the agricultural sector,” says K. Juščius.
