NORLA 2025: Agriculture celebrates 75 years of innovation!

NORLA 2025: Agriculture celebrates 75 years of innovation!

What’s happening at the “NORLA” agricultural fair? Today, on September 4, 2025, Prime Minister Daniel Günther and State Parliament President Kristina Herbst opened the 75th edition of this traditional event in Rendsburg. The trade fair will open its doors until September 7th and offers insights into the diverse world of agriculture.

There are over 10,000 agricultural businesses in Schleswig-Holstein that produce fresh food every day. But the industry faces enormous challenges. According to schleswig-holstein.de, extreme weather, new consumer expectations and complex legal frameworks are forcing farmers to seek innovative solutions and constantly develop themselves further.

Innovation as key

NORLA is not only a showcase for products, but also a platform for new ideas. The trade fair will show, among other things, autonomous tractors, milk sensors and drones that are revolutionizing everyday farming. Günther emphasized how important farmers are for our cultural landscape and food production and called for more appreciation for their work in order to improve the framework conditions.

A future-oriented topic is digitalization in agriculture. The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) has published a brochure in which bmleh.de explains the framework conditions of “digital farming”. This raises the question of how digital transformation affects agriculture and the agricultural industry and what opportunities this could create.

Digitalization in focus

Digitalization is playing an increasingly important role. Agriculture is now making targeted use of technologies such as drones, sensors and robots. In this form of precision farming, fertilizers and pesticides are used in a targeted and efficient manner. This not only increases profitability, but also protects the environment. According to landwirtschaft.de, for example, milking robots can optimize feeding by recording animal health data and relieve farmers of rigid milking times.

However, there are also challenges. Data security is one of the big issues because sensitive operational data, which is often stored in the cloud, can be exposed to potential attacks. Farmers need to be vigilant here and develop appropriate safety strategies.

Setting the course for the future

The state government has already taken steps to reduce bureaucracy and help farmers. One example is the abolition of the material flow balance, which removes bureaucratic hurdles for companies. Political support, such as the full refund on agricultural diesel, also shows that agriculture is taken seriously.

As part of the “Future of Agriculture” dialogue process, which was launched in 2018, 24 theses for sustainable agriculture were developed. The state government is looking for innovative projects that can implement these theses. For this purpose, the “Agriculture Future Prize” is awarded with prize money of 10,000 euros. Interested parties can apply until October 31, 2025.

Agriculture in Schleswig-Holstein remains a modern and dynamic field that is of immense importance not only for the region but for Germany as a whole. NORLA shows us how tradition and innovation can be perfectly combined and provides an outlook on a sustainable future in agriculture.