By Udita Shukla
Ever since the inception of civilisation, agriculture has been the nerve of virtually every economy on earth. Over the years, it gave social and economic independence to nations, making them mature enough for the industrial revolution that in the Netherlands, leapfrogged the GDP (per capita) from USD 28,698 in 1996 to USD 770.8 billion in 2016.
Unfortunately, despite the technological disruptions and cutting-edge research, the world still witnesses an average of 3.1 million children dying of hunger every year. There is a woeful dearth of food grains due to reasons ranging from socio-economic marginalisation to adverse weather and monetary handicaps. Amidst the black canvas of these staggering numbers, the Netherlands shines a beacon towards resource optimisation on the agricultural front.
A history of agriculture expertise
The economy of Netherlands is heavily dependent on agriculture and has recently got the corporate and scientific corridors abuzz with its transformational practices. The technology employed by them is highly mechanised, and exploits agri-food processes that furnish plenty for food-processing, making it the second largest agricultural exporter after the United States.
The Dutch have always been known experts in farming. According to the Statistics Netherlands (CBS), the total value of the Dutch agriculture exports was Sh 9.2 trillion in 2015four times the value of Kenyas 2016/17 budget. Dutch agricultural practices involve the agri-technology which employs robots to pick soft fruit, automated meat separators and meat processors. Apart from that, primary investments include agriculture and horticulture.
Precision farming success story
The fields have driverless tractors combing the crop fields and a quadcopter in the air generating maps of the soil chemistry, water content, nutrients, and growth, which measures and profiles the growth of plants down to the individual crop. Known as precision farming, the methodology clearly transcends the benchmarks of productivity in the average crop yield which is more than twenty tons (as compared to the global average yield per acre which is about nine tons).
Surprisingly, the other side of investment speaks another remarkable storyas part of a national resolution almost two decades ago, the Dutch decided to produce twice as much food using half as many resources. Since 2000, the dependence on water on for key crops has been slashed by as much as ninety percent. Moreover, chemical pesticides have almost reached the end of the day as far as plants in greenhouses are concerned. This is complemented by a nearly sixty percent decrease in the use of antibiotics in Dutch poultry and livestock since 2009.
Resource-rich, or greenhouse geography?
One might consider the above success story to be an inherited legacy of being rich in resources. But the greatest lesson lies in the fact that the Netherlands is a small, heavily populated country with more than thirteen hundred inhabitants per square mile, dispensing with almost every resource considered as an imperative for large-scale agriculture.
An aerial view of the nation pretty much answers the conundrum. The countrysides in the Netherlands are punctuated with regular rows of giant mirrors soaking in the solar energy and nurturing the greenhouse plants that are grown beneath. Some of these greenhouse complexes cover more than one hundred and seventy-five acres.
This subtle climate-control of greenhouses has made it possible for a nation situated near the frigid Arctic Circle to become a globally leading exporter of tomato (a fair-weather fruit). The Dutch also hold the topmost position in exporting potatoes and onions, whereas, the second place in the export of vegetables in terms of value. Additionally, the Netherlands engenders more than a third of the global trade in vegetable seeds.
Food Valley
The brainchild behind these astonishing statistics is an agricultural research centre at the Wageningen University & Research (WUR), found fifty miles southeast of Amsterdam. It is the Silicon Valley of agricultural technology start-ups, known as Food Valley in industry parlance.
Ernst van den Ende, managing director of WURs Plant Sciences Group, explains how only the science-driven in tandem with the market-driven, can solve the food challenge that lies ahead.
The result-oriented, yet simplistic approach can be gauged from his explanation, The absence of nutrients can be offset by cultivating plants that act in symbiosis with certain bacteria to produce their own fertilizer. The soaring cost of grain to feed animals? Feed them grasshoppers instead,
Clearly, it is not what we have, but what all we can create using sustainability as our goal. It eventually comes back to how much we can give back to the earth so the cycle of life does not suffer random, devastating breaks. Perhaps, this is one concept that resonates with what Tim Cook said at the recent Apple Keynote event, Technology infused with humanity can improve peoples lives and change the world.
Featured Image Source: Wikimedia Commons