Skylark brings potato permanently to higher balance CULTIVATION AND TECHNOLOGY I t all started a decade ago with an initiative from the world of corn. The Dutch brewer Heineken tabled the following question during a meeting with barley growers and representatives of the Agrarische Unie (Agricultural Union) in the province of Flevoland: sustainable growing, what exactly is it and how can we, the buyers, market a sustainable end product in collaboration with you, the growers. During the discussion that followed, it soon became clear that this could only be achieved if all parties worked closely together. As potatoes usually form the main item in the cropping plan of the Dutch agricultural farmer, many of the sustainable measures focused on this crop. Heineken, Agrarische Unie and ten crop farmers from the province of Flevoland decided as a group, calling themselves Skylark, to look for sustainability. Growers suggest ideas In order to include every farm management aspect, it seemed a good idea to ask other produce buyers to join the sustainability initiative in addition to Heineken. Companies that soon followed were McCain as a buyer of French-fries potatoes, Suikerunie as a beet grower, Unilever as a major buyer of fresh vegetables such as chicory and carrots, and the Van Liere brothers as buyers of onions. ‘Right from the start it was clear that all ideas and measures to make crop farming more sustainable had to come from the growers themselves’, explains Henk Heinhuis, director of the celebrating Skylark foundation. ‘It doesn’t work if buyers impose cropping measures on the crop farmer. It’s better to agree on acceptable changes that are practical as well. That was and is the viewpoint of both buyers and growers within Skylark.’ In order not to allow consultations within Skylark to fail, the initial growers and buyers thought of a direct system of rules. They opted for ten indicators: product value, soil fertility, soil loss, nutrients, crop protection, water, energy, biodiversity, human capital and local economy. Spreading its wings ‘How does it work,’ is Heinhuis’ next question. ‘Skylark is subdivided into groups of ten to twelve crop farmers within a region. This compares with the group of ten that started the whole ‘It doesn’t work if buyers impose cropping measures on the crop farmer’, Henk Heinhuis knows from experience. Potato World 2013 • number 1 17 Pagina 16
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