Up-to-date machinery, smart and innovative techniques, chain efficiency and a huge amount of data. You would think this is about Silicon Valley, but it isn't. In reality, we are talking about the potato sector. Potato lecturer Peter Kooman outlines his vision for the future.
You have been working for 3 years as a potato lecturer at the Aeres University of Applied Sciences in Dronten. What exactly do you do?
“My goal is to strengthen the potato chain by connecting companies, institutes and researchers. I do that through education; ensure that new themes are included in the curriculum. These themes come to me from the business community, research institutes and colleagues, among others. I identify the need for projects, coordinate them, make connections and bring students and companies together. I also supervise students in various projects. The training is growing fast and there is of course also enough work. Almost all graduates already have a job before they finish their education. At the same time, many people are leaving the sector because of their age. That is worrying, because it means that there are not enough people left with enough knowledge. Knowledge is becoming less self-evident.”
Which theme is the focus?
“The projects cover the entire potato chain. Data analyses, big data, the Erwinia project, but we will also look at aphid flights, energy-efficient storage and new breeding techniques. Data is becoming increasingly important, but its interpretation is rather lacking. In order to be able to combine data from different sources, it would be useful if cooperation within the sector improves. This is a difficult process, because many parties are needed. However, it is all about privacy. You can't just go public with the results of individual companies.”
Precision agriculture seems to be well established in the Netherlands. What do you think still needs to be done in that regard?
“Farmers do indeed make extensive use of precision farming, but the economic application is not yet very large. That is increasingly becoming an item. Growers are able to observe the variation in the field, but converting this knowledge into useful measures is often a lot more difficult. Interpreting drone or satellite images in grains is relatively easy, but in potatoes the biomass is mostly underground. That's a challenge. Moreover, varieties react differently to, for example, fertilization, so that there is no unambiguous way to make task cards from these images. You can see that there is something wrong with the lesser places in the field. However, a farmer still has to actually go out into the field to see what's going on."
Soil health is being taken more and more seriously. Where is it going?
“It has been big, bigger, biggest in recent years. Maybe we should go the other way with mechanization. We are now focusing on efficiency per man; 4-rowers with a total weight of 50 tons, but we are not going to keep that up because of soil compaction. We need to look at other harvesting systems; machines that put less stress on the ground. In fact, you could say that innovation is going the other way. The trend is already reversing. There are large growers who are returning to 4- to 2-row harvesters. I expect it to be quite normal in the future, because awareness for soil and compaction is already increasing. By then there will probably be robotic-style compact harvesters that can run 24/7. The technology is already there, but it just needs to be combined. At school, for example, students are working on an autonomous manure spreader that spreads manure without anyone being involved. In addition, rotation and space for potatoes are becoming a growing problem in the Netherlands, as the sector is not yet sufficiently aware of. In the coming years, we will have to work very hard on this; We will also analyze the rotations in the Netherlands better for this.”
As a lecturer you have a chain-wide view. In which areas can there still be room for improvement?
“You have to look for innovation in the chain more in win-win situations. With the old Bintje model, everyone had their shed full and the trader made an offer. Nowadays there is more coordination in the chain and there are growers who pre-sort for a fee and deliver at difficult times. Another underexposed theme in the potato chain is failure costs. When you tune in optimally, you don't do too much. Investigate unnecessary work, such as extra driving. Avoid mistakes, such as picking up the wrong lot. Those are all failure costs. But if the profit from the failure costs does not reach the party that does something for it, it will not happen. You have to reward effort for efficiency. We are good at solving problems, but we must become good at preventing them. In the chips column you can see a better match. That's because they're trying to direct the chain. You can if you pay more.”
This article comes from the recently published 'Potato Market, the Analysis 2017'. Click here to receive the magazine.
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