Lilia Planjyan

What will the average potato farm in the Netherlands look like ten years from now? There will, of course, still be a grower who knows the soil, reads the crop, and instinctively senses risk. But it will also be defined by a way of working in which real-time monitoring, models, and digital crop data are as commonplace as GPS control is today. Fields will not only be cultivated but continuously monitored. Not to replace the grower, but to enhance their expertise. That future is already here.

Yet in potato cultivation, many decisions are still rooted in experience, intuition, and visual observation. When should nitrogen be applied? When should irrigation begin? When is action needed against late blight? Because the crop looks good. Because it feels right. Because it worked last year. There is nothing unusual about that, but the question is whether it still suffices.

During conversations, growers keep asking the same question: what does the shift towards digital tools mean for my role? This concern is justified. New technology often leads to doubts about the relevance of personal knowledge and experience. In practice, however, the opposite is true. A sensor does not make decisions. A model does not know your field, your market, or your risk tolerance. The grower does. Technology does not replace that knowledge, it enhances it. Growers who combine experience with real-time insight will be in a stronger position going forward.

For growers who still mainly rely on human observation, the message is clear: start now. Not by changing everything overnight, but by working with data and models throughout a full growing season. Compare these with your own observations. See where they align, where they differ, and where visual observation is simply too late.

And for growers who have been monitoring for years, the next step is not better monitoring, but better decision-making. So, what should you do this year? Identify which choices you could approach differently next season based on real-time data, models and your own observations. In the end, the choice is simple: lead the way or be overtaken. ●

Lilia Planjyan
Co-founder of Agurotech