Last 9-10 October, it was the Limburg Province House and Yookr B.V. who welcomed project partners to their study visit.
The first day we made a tour from the southern to northern part of the Province. We started at the Province House Limburg in Maastricht. After a warm welcome by Annemiek Canjels we had a short but very interesting tour in the Marble quarters of the Provincial Residence. With explanation about the 1992 Signing Ceremony of the EU Treaty of Maastricht, which included the introduction of the EU currency the Euro, by Dr Eric Lemmens.
After the tour we started with a triggering presentation from Gino Smeulders from the company Treemania. We also visited in the city Maastricht on-site, where sensors measure the moisture and soil quality for healthy trees. They make predictions possible to see when a new planted tree needs water. You could clearly see the positive difference between trees without monitoring system.
Next, we went to Baarlo for a presentation of the Weather station Wolky Tolky, by Luc Verkoelen (See more info: www.wolkytolky.com/en/) The company constructs weather-stations and uses soil and environment data, to empower the growth of their fruit-trees. This way is much more sustainable since less fertilizer and crop protection is needed.
After this presentation we had the honor to have a tour in the huge greenhouse in Kessel (see sitestas.nl) with Boy Jacobs, one of the 3rd Generation Grower and entrepreneur growing cucumbers.
At this location John van Helden from Yookr B.V. (https://www.yookr.org/) shared the co-creation project between Yookr and Sitestas. In this project both parties share knowledge to get better crop forecasts by learning more about the ideal climate and the growth of the plants.
Finally, Jan Jacobs from Fontys Hogeschool/ GreenTechLab (https://fontys.nl/Home.htm) offered a lecture about the triggering question: Farmers talk ‘data’ don’t they? As a critical view on the data centric approach.
We wrap up and went for dinner in an Italian restaurant in the city centre of Roermond, where partners and stakeholders discussed in a more relaxed ambience.
The second day took place at the Brightlands Campus Greenport Venlo, where the Dutch Food Week took place. This is the biggest Agricultural Event of the Netherlands, with several events taking place in different locations in the Netherlands.
We had six fantastic presentations, leading to new connections and a lot of inspiration. See below the presentations we arranged.
- Connecting agri & food Angela van de Zanden https://www.connectingagriandfood.nl/en/
- Brite Solar Technologies Spyros Bousios https://www.britesolar.com/
- Eagle drone Jan Theeven http://www.eagledrone.nl/
- GreenTechLab Marcel Roossen https://fontys.nl/greentechlab/
- Agrisyst Marc Cox https://agrisyst.com/en/
- Join Data Jos Tholen https://www.join-data.nl/?lang=en
We had two very joyful and interesting days, with insights in how co-creation works out, discussions around the future of digitization in the agri-food sector, the challenges farmers face and the growing awareness that there are already so many inventions to create a better world.
We thank all the presenters and participants!
