CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY Digitalisation of the Dutch General Inspection Service for Agricultural Seed and Seed Potatoes (NAK) requires choices from the sector POTATO CYST NEMATODE DIGITAL INSPECTION By making a difference in the required testing speed and release of the test results, with his PDA, the inspector can focus on examining the samples in order of priority. how a grower can enter the lifting dates of a plot of seed potatoes. ‘This is really a piece of cake, isn’t it’, is how Hommes expresses his enthusiasm. Immediately after the digital notification, the grower’s trading company is also informed that a plot has been lifted, and this information allows them to make an export plan. This computer program allows the grower or merchant also to indicate whether the post-checks should be carried out using the traditional ELISA method or the modern PCR technology. The customer can also tick the desired speed of the test. ‘By specifying the difference in the required speed of testing and release of the test results, using his PDA, the inspector can focus on examining the samples in order of priority. This also makes it possible to work in the laboratory according to optimal planning. We have a limited capacity which we would therefore want to use to the maximum’, Ad Toussaint adds. Within the NAK, Toussaint is responsible both for inspection policies and systems. Thanks to digital technology, the NAK can test 45,000 tubers for viruses each week with the PCR method. Since a basic potato tuber sample contains 200 tubers, 225 lots can be released every week. In addition, there was a weekly capacity for the post-checking of 600,000 tubers this year. However, the results are only available after six weeks, because the initial plants have to grow first in order to be tested later. Avoiding labour peaks ‘By digitalising all communication and processes, we can also keep the inspection rates in check’, says Casteleijn. ‘This year, despite the poor lifting conditions, we noticed that improved planning and collaboration with trading companies has meant that fewer external farm workers were needed. Open collaboration and transparent data sharing means that labour peaks can be avoided. ”Never waste a good crisis” is a slogan that directly applies to our NAK organisation this year. The seed potato chain has learned an awful lot from each other and I This year, the European potato cyst nematode laws and regulations have been tightened up, one of the consequences being that more plots must be sampled. Sampling may consist of one sample of 600 ml or one of 1,500 ml. The history of a plot is decisive in which method is required. How does one know which method to apply? Toussaint wonders. ‘Do you simply believe everything a grower tells you? Or do you have to go further than that? The answer is, of course, that you have to go further. It’s because of this that, together with the Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority or VWA, we examined the possibilities of going digital on this subject. This has led to a situation whereby the official government data on potato growers from the Regulation and Infections declarations of the VWA has been opened up and we can now check internally, in advance, whether there is a right of sampling or for low sampling intensity. We can see exactly, on the basis of different colours, which plot or part of a plot we need to sample and for what. It is our intention also to include the potato cyst nematode tests and the certificate of the plot. I hope that the government will now move on and organise a service point where the grower can enter all the farm data necessary. realise that we can no longer work without this digital working practice. 24/7 One sometimes wonders why not all growers use the digital service point. ‘Last year, 38 percent of growers used the digital service point to apply for certificates, this has now risen to 41 percent’, Toussaint confirms. ‘It is, of course, true that the grower now has to take the initiative himself from behind his computer instead of being somewhere on a farm and making a phone call to pass on the information, but he also gets a lot in return. For example, there is less chance that mistakes are made, data is processed much faster, which means that the inspector can work more efficiently. This also applies to the 14 Potato World 2011 • number 1 Pagina 13
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