National Ploughing Championships - the Europe's largest outdoor agricultural show

The National Ploughing Championships (NPC) 2022 - an outdoor event held in Laois, Ireland had taken place successfully through the first two days (September 20-21) due to ideal good weather.

The slightly yellow sunshine warmed up local cold Irish and for our Asian guests, it was enough to melt away the cold winds blowing though the slopes of Ratheniska, as if encouraging us to join the influx of people at the exhibitionthe full of festive atmosphere.

On the opening day of September 21, those who attended the event for the first time could be surprised at the number of about 91,500 participants. On the second day, a new record of 115,500 participants was reached. We just made up an odd number to contribute to such a large crowd of people coming to the NPC, but it was really fun for us to walk and dodge on the ground at the core of the 360ha exhibition site including supportive function areas such as parking lots, fields for plowing contests, and entertainment and food locations.

The exhibition took place in heavy rains on the third day and also the closing day. Organizers confirmed the weather was the only objective factor that made the number of visitors to the event in 3 days only reach 277,000 people, lower than the expectation of 300,000 to smash a record of 297,000 set up in 2019, but I thought that success was not small at all.

Not only did Irish farmers come to the NPC, but the event, which has been expanded into a national agriculture exhibition, has attracted the participation of the world's leading agricultural equipment manufacturers. According to the NP's CEO, Ms. Anna May McHugh, the exhibition had achieved outstanding results since visitors could not only admire advanced machines or high quality cow herds, but also enjoy the festive atmosphere with the participation of sports stars, models, and bustling Tik-Tokers.

It is undeniable that the NPC event had become a gathering place for leading Irish politicians. President Michael D Higgins and his wife Sabina were the first political couple to present at the exhibition. He and his wife not only visited but also "went down to the field" and joined farming with ploughman JJ Delane from East Cork.

Prime Minister Michael Martin led a delegation to the event including Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue who joined a crowd of people watching and admiring the achievements of Irish agriculture as well as its status in the economy. Without much need for security personnel and not separate from visitors, PM Martin shook hands with visitors, hugged and greeted children before stopping at the Innovation Arena to admire new technological achievements of Irish agriculture. After that, The Irish Times reported he was hurriedly on board a helicopter leaving the exhibition for flight to a United Nations General Assembly meeting.

Present at the exhibition, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Mr. Martin Heydon also chose to stop at Innovation Arena at the center of the exhibition which had an implication of convergence point for technological advances.

Mr. Heydon asked the Irish Trade Office to arrange for him to meet privately with the Vietnamese delegation. Speaking with Mr. Le Manh Hung - Director of the Enterprise Development Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment), Mr. Heydon assessed on a working trip to Vietnam in mid-September through which, he said, Ireland saw many opportunities for cooperation, promote investment in the application of advanced technologies to form a sustainable agriculture that can adapt to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Meanwhile, Mr. Hung emphasized his impression on the scale of Irish agriculture, especially in the supply chain of solutions, technology and scientific content of the Irish livestock industry. The two officials agreed to have more bilateral meetings and send experts to accelerate and deepen bilateral cooperation.

The 3-day NCP event officially closed up with the naming of 2 champions of 2022: farmers Eamonn Tracey from Carlow County and John Whelan from Wexford County. The two winners will represent Ireland at the 68th World Ploughing Championships in Lithuania in 2023. The award titled Agricultural Machine of the year went to agro-mechanical company IAM with its Farmdroid FD20 - a robot for sowing and  weeding.

The 2022 World Ploughing Championships in Ireland was first scheduled to be held in St.Petersburg, Russia, but canceled due to the conflict in Ukraine. It attracted the participation of 25 teams, from many countries such as Germany, Uganda, India, Poland, Ghana, Belgium and New Zealand.

Daragh O'Brien, a 36-year-old inspector and semi-professional golfer from the town of Naas where the NPC was held, was honored for his passion in cooking with the National Brown Bread award. In addition to the €15,000 prize, O'Brien will have the privilege of delivering bread to 152 Aldi stores across Ireland.O'Brien said his wife encouraged him to compete because she couldn't buy brown bread anywhere as good as him. It was also an "unofficial record" of O'Brien since that was the first time in 9 years of the bread tournament, a man became the winner. And maybe Ireland is about to have a brand of Daragh O'Brien Bread...