CU LTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Smart Farming is still a matter of trial and error tive project. They gained lots of experience, questions have been answered, but there are also many new questions.’ It’s the proper interpretation of deviations in plots that appears to be the art of Smart Farming, whether your images are free or paid. T Check out the profit potential According to advisory officer and expert in the domain of Smart Farming, Herman Krebbers of Delphy, this last fact is something that many starters have he practical lessons with GPS applications were useful, but as often is the case with pioneers, you first have to find out what works and what doesn’t before you can profit from a new invention. That’s also the experience of Jo-Annes de Bat, a provincial administrator who has one foot in the clay and one in politics. As the member of the Provincial Executive for Economy and Agriculture of the Province of Zeeland he’s closely involved in the Agriculture 2.0 High-tech Sensing project, both as a subsidy provider, but also as an interested farmer’s son who grew up on the Zeeland clay. His brother and father run a farm business and he follows the progress there closely, also when new techniques are introduced. With the arrival of the first GPS techniques, his relatives and many of their colleagues thought to have purchased ‘easily-manageable devices’. ‘With these, they were immediately going to make great leaps forward, was the initial thought. Meanwhile, they have only collected a lot of data and there’s now the question: what to do with it’ With this practical example De Bat touches the core of the current status in Smart Farming. The invitation of the recently held symposium at which he spoke noted that 48 crop farmers in the province of Zeeland have taken a first step in high-tech sensing on some 100 small plots in the past two years. For all those involved that start was an instrucexperienced. In his opinion this is because farmers aren’t aware that they first have to determine their own position before calling in the help of satellites and drones. ‘Do you know where you are with your business as regards income? How much do you really have to improve compared to others? What steps can you still take and how will that benefit you?’ With these questions Krebbers, who recently spoke at meetings in Kamperland and Emmeloord, wants to point out that investing in GPS also costs a lot of money. He thinks that it would be better to find out first how much profit it will bring. ‘Moreover, there are already very many free data applications that can be consulted, and they already provide a great deal of information for farmers. For example, satellite images of plots in the Netherlands, which have been taken at different times in the year, can be downloaded from www.satellietbeeld.nl. By placing these images over each other in the right time sequence, the farmer can observe changes in his plots. If interpreted correctly, they can also provide a lot of information. And www.ijkakker.nl is another internet platform that provides free information’, according to Krebbers. The soil will always be the basis It’s the proper interpretation of deviations in plots that Smart Farming appears to do extremely well, whether your images were paid or free. ‘There’s some lovely, high-tech equipment, says Krebbers who, as a hobbyist, likes to experiment with drones himself, ‘but that won’t help you if you don’t have any background knowledge of your crops and plots. Go into the field first ‘Many farmers aren’t aware that they first have to determine their own position before calling in the help of satellites and drones’, believes Herman Krebbers of Delphy. 30 Potato World 2016 • number 2 Pagina 29

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