March 21, 2023 | Articles

High demand for low-input varieties

To inform visitors about the field of participants at the international Potato Variety Days 2022 in Emmeloord and its surrounding area, PotatoWorld magazine prepared a useful e-book in advance. The editors asked all those who downloaded the free digital book what topics they find most important when it comes to breeding the potato varieties of…

March 21, 2023 | Articles

GEO4A maps seed potato harvest in time

The earlier the yield, and the earlier the quality of the seed potato yields of all growers are known, the more efficient the sales and the marketing will be. This will all eventually benefit the pay-out. At least, that is the aim of seed potato trading merchant Den Hartigh from Emmeloord. Since the start of…

December 21, 2022 | Articles

One step back, two steps forward in clonal selection

Two years ago, clonal seed potato selector Klaas Schenk (51) from the village of Anna Paulowna made a radical decision. Under the guise of one step back, two steps forward, he halved his farm area in order to improve his further progress, while completely changing his cultivation method. His clones are now growing in beds and,…

September 27, 2022 | Articles

From potato vending to potato wholesale a success story

From potato doorstep selling [aardappelleurhandel] with a turnover of 5 tons per day to a potato wholesale business of currently 75,000 tons a year. That, in a nutshell, is the success story of the Dewitte Potatoes family business of Poperinge in Flanders, Belgium. Quality and flexibility, according to the traders from Flanders, are the most…

June 22, 2022 | Articles

A unique tour of tinned potatoes

Tinned potatoes. That’s certainly not the first thing the Dutch consumer thinks of in his search for a potato meal. In fact, they’re hardly available at all in this type of packaging. Nevertheless, the Dutch preserves company Coroos in Geldermalsen turns out thousands of tons of baby potatoes in these metal containers every year. During…

March 23, 2022 | Articles

Variety Days 2021: What do breeders focus on in present-day potato breeding?

To be able to inform our visitors in advance about the number of participants at the recently held live (!) International Variety Days, Potato World magazine had produced an e-book in advance, which was available free of charge on the internet. Anyone who had downloaded the digital information booklet was asked by the editors about…

March 23, 2022 | Articles

At the Farm of the Future, soil structure and soil health are top priorities

At the Dutch Farm of the Future, developed on the Field Crops site of Wageningen University & Research (WUR) in Lelystad, the potato plays a leading role. If only because the cropping plan provides twice as much area for potatoes as for the other six crops with which it is alternated. Senior researcher sustainable agriculture Pieter…

September 23, 2021 | Articles

Keeping up with the times, driving force in almost 100 years of seed potato cultivation

The seed potato company of the Ryckaert family from Assenede is a household name in Belgium, and they are also no strangers for many colleagues in the Dutch sector. With almost a century of knowledge and experience in potato multiplication, that is not surprising. Keeping up with the times is the driving force in their…

September 23, 2021 | Articles

Haulm killing with a hybrid electric method requires less power

Hybrid electric crop protection. This is how Australian crop protection chemical company Nufarm and the German start-up CROP.ZONE describe their new invention, NuCrop for chemical-free weed control and haulm killing in potatoes. It combines the technique of electrocution with a special fluid for better current conduction, which requires less (motor) power and achieves more capacity…

September 23, 2021 | Articles

Professor Richard Visser (WUR): ‘Growth of EU organic area without gene editing will definitely result in decreasing crop yields’

In a recently published manifesto, agricultural scientists in the European Union call for the admission of new breeding techniques such as gene editing in European organic farming. This may seem like handing a vegetarian a sausage and saying that it is essential for his or her health, but Professor Richard Visser, one of the authors,…