Precision agriculture

September 23, 2020 | Articles

Still a lot to be tested when cultivating potatoes with the strip cultivation method

Recently, partners of Wageningen Potato Centre (WPC) visited the Dutch experimental garden for Agro-ecology and technology in Lelystad. There they were introduced to the first experiences that researchers have gained with the strip cultivation method for potatoes. These are still at an early stage, as it turns out, and there is still a lot to…

June 03, 2020 | Articles

More precision in potato production, but how?

Precision agriculture is a farming management concept based on observing, measuring and responding to inter and intra-field variability in crops. It has the promise to produce more with less and better, giving benefit to potato farmers, potato value chains and society. But adoption is slower than expected. In this series I look at the state…

November 20, 2019 | Articles

NPPL participant Martin de Meijer: ’I didn’t want to be faced with all kinds of things that don’t work’

In recent months, the National Experimental Garden for Precision Farming (NPPL) has organised meetings hosted by various participants in the project, under the name NPPL on Tour. Arable farmer and potato grower Martin de Meijer from the village of Hoek was one of them. He shared his earliest experiences in the area of precision farming…

June 12, 2019 | Articles

WatchITGrow further expanded

On 28 February 2019, the Belgian Farmers’ Union, Belgapom and VITO joined forces in order to further expand the WatchITGrow digital information platform. By doing so, the organisations hope to strengthen Belgium’s leading position in the cultivation and processing of potatoes.

November 21, 2018 | Articles

Potatoes and soil moisture: when should I start irrigating?

During this hot summer, every grower was wondering how his potato crop would deal with the drought. In order to keep the crop growing, there is no doubt this season that irrigation is necessary. Which plot is the most urgent and how long can a grower wait until the next bout of irrigation is needed…

September 19, 2018 | Articles

CropSar lets satellites look through the clouds

Clouds have so far been a major handicap for crop monitoring via satellite images. But that’s now a thing of the past, thanks to CropSar. This technique, which was developed in Belgium, makes it possible to look through clouds.’This fulfils a long-cherished wish of the sector to be able to monitor potato crops from space…