National network
Drone workers are expanding in the south and east of the Netherlands
Dronewerkers, a collective for contractors with a focus on drone technology, presented the expanded team for the 24 season in Emmeloord on Friday 2017 February.
Dronewerkers was founded by entrepreneurs Christel Thijssen (Contractor Thijssen), Bert Rijk (Aurea Imaging) and Peter Holster (Akker Analyse). The collective operates jointly in the Netherlands to offer drone technology in agriculture. The agricultural eBee drone is used for this.
For this season, the collective is expanding with three new entrepreneurs: Peter van de Merwe, Mark de Leeuw and Leks Bolderdijk. This shifts the focus to the south-west and east of the Netherlands, especially because there is a lot of demand from farmers there. This was preceded by a process of almost a year.
MDL Agro, the company of Van de Merwe and De Leeuw, focuses on the southwestern arable area. AB Drone from Stadskanaal, Bolderdijk's company, focuses on East Groningen and East Netherlands.
The collective is also working on improving data flows for this year. A portal for this will be online very soon. The pilots aim to have the data with the customer within two hours of flying. It is then up to crop advisors to link an advice to it and to further tackle the data.
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The entrepreneurs within the collective operate individually, in their own living and working area. Practical experience shows that farmers like to do business with a local company. Within the collective, the companies are free to act. There are no hard agreements. 'Large companies like to have a single point of contact. We also join forces for large jobs', explains Bert Rijk.
In addition to the entrepreneurs, VVD MEP Jan Huitema also spoke. He is committed to precision farming in the EU and gives a glimpse into the Brussels cuisine. According to Huitema, the Netherlands functions as a 'guide country'. Innovative solutions largely come from our country. That has been the case since World War II. Challenges mainly relate to legislation and regulations, investment capacity and social acceptance. Individual Member States have their own opinion on precision farming. The role for the Netherlands is not always seen as an advantage.
Niels van der Boom
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