Bayer CropScience and Farm Frites have begun a Food Chain Partnership initiative which is designed to implement sustainable agricultural practices in potato cultivation in the Netherlands and Belgium.

According to the companies, the goal of the partnership is to support a bottom-up approach with potato farmers addressing value-adding sustainable potato-growing practices at individual farm level.

“Potato is a valuable crop for farmers in western Europe and a key raw material for the potato processing industry, for example for flakes, mash and French fries,” said Leon Boer, Director Potato Procurement of Farm Frites. “Therefore, the implementation of sustainable practices is a must for local farmers. With this collaboration we want to enable our contract growers to consistently meet our high-quality standards and stay competitive.”

As part of the initiative, Bayer CropScience will share its expertise in potato agronomy and sustainability measures. “Bayer CropScience’s contribution to sustainable agriculture is at the core of our business supporting our customers with innovative solutions, proactive stewardship and partnerships,” explained Silke Friebe, Head of Food Chain Management at Bayer CropScience. “Our core competencies lie in developing and supplying integrated crop solutions that are locally adapted and tailored to the individual needs of our customers. The common goal is to help drive a sustainable productivity increase and to improve crop quality.”

Five pilot farms, three in Belgium and two in the Netherlands, which supply their harvests to Farm Frites, have been selected for the coming potato season. The two Dutch farms are also members of the Skylark foundation, cooperation between arable farmers and food processors aimed at promoting greater sustainability in agricultural production. All partners are striving to align this Food Chain Partnership initiative closely with the Skylark foundation methodology.

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Dutch growers and researchers have bounced back from the cancellation of joint financing via the Product Board for Horticulture and the formation of a ‘Club of 100’ continues to grow with around 40 supply companies now closely involved in strategic research into greenhouse horticulture at Wageningen University.

Wageningen needed to adapt following the loss of central funding and developed a model, based on that used by many gyms and sports clubs, to allow the supply industry to become more involved in research. Each participant signs a two-year commitment agreement for a contribution of €15,000 a year. “The companies can spend half of these funds on their own research issues. The other half allows them have their say about the direction of our strategic applied research”, says Sjaak Bakker, manager of Wageningen UR Greenhouse Horticulture. “Additionally they are on top of the latest innovations and benefit from the ‘chemistry’ that develops within the network at the half-yearly meetings. Companies that would normally be competitors now meet in a very different environment, and it is having surprising results.”

“It is heart-warming to see how many people believe in the importance of research”, comments team leader Jan-Willem de Vries. “Some have even volunteered to act as ambassador. It has really energised us.”

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Northern Polytunnels has introduced a new roof fan to help remove excessive heat from polytunnels and polythene clad greenhouses.

Usually used with a temperature switch, the fan can remove 4,600m³/hr (2,700cfm) of air and is supplied with a mesh guard on the inlet. It is installed by cutting out a 30-35cm hole in the polytunnel cover. The fan is then inserted from the inside in a rotating motion, and clipped on to the support bars. Northern Polytunnels says that the seal around the 7.5 kg unit is watertight, even in extreme weather conditions.

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Agrovista has added a new apple canker forecasting model to its Growers Choice Interactive disease forecasting service. The new model informs growers whether their orchards are infected, and if so at what level, by monitoring factors that can cause outbreaks, including rainfall, leaf wetness, temperature and tree wounds.

Agrovista fruit agronomist Alex Radu explains, “Accurate information is essential to produce reliable model outputs. This is provided by high-quality Plantsystems weather stations that GCI growers lease, similar to the existing scab and codling moth models they are familiar with.”

Information is forwarded every 15 minutes to a central server. The software model, based on RIMpro pest and disease prediction software, integrates this with information on canker’s lifecycle stored in the program. The resulting graph shows spore germination, relative numbers of spores on wounds and a resulting infection value.

While pruning cuts, bud burst, petal fall and fruit drop are all risk periods, the biggest danger comes at leaf fall in the autumn adds Alex: “If there are few fresh wounds then treatment may not be needed, regardless of infection value, but if wound levels are significant and the trend is rising and coinciding with a high infection value, treatment should be considered.”

It is hoped that the new model will reduce the need for prophylactic spray treatments in the autumn, reducing costs and improving the environmental footprint of apple production.

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