The Seventh Training of Trainers of the Asian and Pacific Network for Testing of Agricultural Machinery (ANTAM) on Testing and Evaluation of Power Tiller and Mini Tiller was held from 6 to 11 December in Sarlahi, Nawalpur, Nepal, organized by Centre for Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (CSAM) of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) together with  Nepal Agricultural Research Council (NARC) and the Agricultural Machinery Testing and Research Centre (AMTRC), and with technical support from China Agricultural Mechanization Center (CAMC), Indian Council for Agricultural  Research (ICAR) and Philippines Agricultural Machinery Testing and Evaluation Center (AMTEC).

AMTRC is the ‘youngest’ testing station of the ANTAM network, which was established only a few years ago. Benefiting from ANTAM experts with the assignments of providing support to the countries that are planning to establish or upgrade their testing facilities, AMTRC has achieved significant progress in improving its equipment, infrastructure and human resources since 2018.

The training gathered engineers and practitioners from 15 countries providing both theoretical and practical curricula to improve capability in performing the ANTAM tests, and support member countries in achieving ANTAM accreditation of their testing facilities.

The programme included an overview and demonstrations of the ANTAM Codes on Power Tillers (001-2024) and Mini Tillers (001a-2024), as well as their equivalent national codes in selected participating countries. Trainees also attended presentations introducing safety and gender-inclusive considerations for agricultural machinery, and a knowledge-sharing session on the management of testing facilities. AMTRC also introduced Nepal agricultural testing and research methodologies and the proposed Nepal Standards for testing of Power Tillers and Mini Tillers, which are largely based on the ANTAM Codes.

As part of the practical curriculum, the participants conducted testing according to ANTAM Codes in the AMTRC facilities, presenting their results on the last day of the event. A knowledge-sharing and discussion session followed the presentations, where participants shared technical recommendations for agriculture machinery testing and stressed the importance of uniformity in the context of test reports.