CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY French edition with European style Splendid Dutch pavilion In collaboration with the Dutch ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation, the NAO fitted out a splendid Dutch Potato pavilion at PotatoEurope. In bright orange, the companies Schaap Holland, Agri 2.0, Climax International, Mooij Agro, Vandoorne Installations, Inverness Transport, Semagri, Restrain, Stet Holland and Jac van den Oord presented themselves to the international visitors. To lend extra distinction to the meeting between the Dutch companies and host country France, Kees Lever, director of Vegetable Agro chains and Food Quality, and Nico van Opstal, member of the Agriculture Council, organised a potato luncheon in the pavilion. In his welcoming speech, Lever emphasised that the top score policy is increasingly beginning to take shape in the Netherlands. The golden triangle of entrepreneurs, researchers and government authorities is the basis for this innovation policy. Leading scientists Huub Schepers of Applied Research, Plant & Environment (PPO) and Denis Gaucher of Arvalis took the lunch party to the world of Phytophthora. Brief and to the point, they sketched the problems current potato growers are struggling with, and which scientific solutions are contributing to answers to the problem. Following on from this theme, Copa president Arnaud Delacour emphasised that modern technology such as cisgeneses, whereby breeding companies introduce potato genes with the help of GMO technology, should be used against Phytophthora in practice. ‘It is a missed opportunity not to use the natural resistances of the potato directly’, he told prominent potato specialists from Fedepom, Felcoop, FN3PT, GIPT, GNIS, UNPT, LTO and NAO. Electronic graders for uncleaned potatoes A little bit further on, we saw another Miedema novelty, the SG 405 Smart Grader. This version is totally ready for the market and it is the only one in its category that is suitable for the electronic inspection and grading of cleaned and uncleaned potatoes. With this machine, which processes uncleaned produce, Miedema is focusing specially on the seed potato market in which precise grading for size can prove hugely profitable. When both inspection and grading can be carried out with one machine, the farmer can economise on labour. The number of inspection/grading options of the Smart Grader lies between three and twelve, manager Jos Broeders explains. Using a grid with sizes between 28 and 80 millimetres, the machine grades for size, shape and quality. Four HD colour infra-red cameras photograph each individual tuber. The accuracy of the grading process can be adjusted in 0.1 millimetre steps. The precision grading systems cannot match this, says Broeders. After having been scanned, the potatoes are led along nozzles that are mounted before a selection gate. When the detected tuber has arrived at the correct gate, the nozzle blows it towards the transport belt and the gate. 28 Potato World 2012 • number 4 Pagina 27
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