Located at the tip of Western Europe, the Netherlands is developing its economy as a world leader in agriculture despite being a tiny country. And not quite naturally…
The Netherlands is the largest city in our country in terms of surface area. Slightly smaller than Konya owner. But this small country has a much larger economy than many countries in the world, let alone Konya and Turkey.
Agriculture is the stakeholder of this giant economy. So, how is the Netherlands despite the climatic conditions that are not normally suitable for agriculture? exports vegetables, herbs and fruits to the whole world. Everything lies in agricultural technologies.
Let’s first illustrate productivity in the Netherlands with two examples:
While the water consumption in tomato cultivation is 104 liters per half kilo, in the Netherlands this With less than 4 liters of water consumption is being done.
Greenhouses, which cover a total area of 9,700 hectares, are used in traditional soil agriculture. It offers the harvest that can be obtained on 10 decares of land in 1 decare. Moreover, with less water and fertilizer consumption.
While Turkey realized a total of 29 billion 737 million dollars of agricultural exports in 2021, this number will increase in the Netherlands in 2021. 100 billion dollars exceeded.
So how are these and much more possible? What special technologies are used in the Netherlands?
Agricultural technologies in the Netherlands are far ahead of world standards in many areas, from seeds to harvesting and shipping to the world. Yes, in the country even just for seeds special technologies are used.
Located in the northwest of the countrySeed Valley‘ focuses solely on developing different variations of vegetables and flowers. Moreover, Enza Zaden, which is only one of the companies in this Valley, spends 100 million dollars a year only in the R&D phase. As a result, it produces nearly 150 vegetable variations every year.
In other words, companies in the Netherlands believe that the investments made in the long run He realizes that it will generate much larger revenues.
Nature is also challenged in aquaculture:
The Netherlands is a country where it rains almost half of the year. Of course, this can cause some negativities for agriculture. But Dutch breeders, against nature building huge greenhouses.
Moreover, with advanced technologies in greenhouse areas, some vegetables and flowers, all year round regardless of seasonal conditions can be grown. Greenhouse companies, like seed companies, spend millions of dollars on R&D processes and increase productivity every day.
Of course, not everything is about greenhouses: Here’s the science fiction of traditional agriculture
The Netherlands, of course, continues to maintain its traditional soil agriculture. However, this tradition is now limited to farming only on the land.
Many farmers and agricultural companies in the Netherlands, ‘precision farming technologies‘ he adopts. Drones that analyze the chemical component of the soil are used so that the areas that need water the most are identified, they can examine the soil down to micronutrients, and the tractors that move according to a pre-prepared program can do all the work.
Again, spraying is done with drones, so that the damage to the soil is prevented in the spraying that is normally done with tractors, with artificial intelligence robots the plants grown can be maintained regularly and with the best quality, even with machine learning systems By cutting the root of a pepper, even which direction it will grow is determined, and cutting can be done accordingly.
Where these technologies and more are developed, Silicon Valley’s agriculture-oriented alternative: Foodvalley
The Netherlands is also home to a technology center focused on this area to continue improving agricultural technologies and finding new ways to grow more efficiently. This center, called Foodvalley, including 15 of the top 20 agri-food businesses It hosts the headquarters of many international food companies and research institutes.
Among the companies that play an active role in the center Nestlé, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Cargill and Kraft Heinz there is also.
Of course, the technologies used in fields or greenhouses vary from company to company. Many agricultural companies in the Netherlands are focusing on one product in particular, trying to achieve maximum efficiency in that product.