AgrotechThe mounted Croptiscan 3000 scans a 3 m strip at about 5 km/h, marks plants with Y-virus or leaf roll for removal and costs €95,000, against €175,000 for the self-propelled version.
AgrotechThe two-year EcoFerm project, funded by TKI Agri & Food, will test a continuous fermentation method that keeps microbes in the bioreactor, to make animal-free proteins such as whey cheaper to produce.
EnvironmentAfter a record-dry summer, the Netherlands is restoring river meanders, storing more water in the IJsselmeer and capping groundwater pumping, Vice Minister Jaap Slootmaker told Down To Earth as India and the Netherlands signed water MoUs.
CropsA 0.6-hectare pilot between Amsterdam and The Hague, run with Wageningen and Leiden researchers, is testing about 30 rice cultivars on peat kept wet to stop it drying, sinking and releasing CO2.
Founded in 2017, Dutch egg producer Kipster feeds its hens food waste instead of grain, avoids killing male chicks and runs its farms on solar power.
The Dutch potato variety Valencia, marketed by ACI, is giving bumper yields this season and raising hopes among growers in several districts.
VideoIn Lunteren, near Wageningen University, Jan Dirk van der Voort's family dairy farm feeds 90 cows on 40-year-old pasture and makes cheese sold at four times ordinary prices.
Flower farmer Delwar Hossain has made tulips bloom in his Sreepur garden from bulbs brought from the Netherlands.
In Dutch greenhouse 'plant factories', computers measure each crop's needs and control nutrients, LED light and temperature to maximise yield.
Keukenhof, a vast tulip garden open to tourists two months a year, stands at the centre of a Dutch flower trade that supplies 60 per cent of the world's flowers.
