Potato World vision Do your homework in time… It’s already October and a large part of the 2014 harvest has already been delivered or is being stored. So far, the market can well be called dramatic and, with the knowledge of the past few months, the prospect of very good prices is a distant one right now. I was recently invited by a fertiliser company to a symposium where current events in the cultivation of potatoes were also on the agenda. The low underwater weight of the potatoes in the various potato plots was used to further increase potassium sulphate (and preferably no potash 60) in potatoes. After these comments, a discussion broke out because the low underwater weights were now being commercially exploited to promote potassium fertiliser sales. In many cases, however, the potassium problem in the plot wasn’t due to a low underwater weight. It was a lack of information that had led to that mistaken conclusion, and this can often lead to problems on the other side, too. Last year, you saw a great deal of ‘land hunger’ on the part of the crop farmer after two years of high prices. What happened was that all farmers too readily paid a few hundred euros more rent to get hold of more land. I’m surprised that farmers are so easily prepared to pay for something they don’t know. Many crop farmers often don’t know their own or their leased land. Soil samples are often not available, which is why they often apply fertiliser based on feeling and only partly on experience. This ‘ignorance’ hits back at the end of the season in the shape of disappointing sales and/or too high cultivation costs. During the past few years, we’ve been assisting farmers in drawing up proper soil and fertiliser plans. Insight into the condition of the soil provides insight into the necessary applications of fertiliser, thus preventing unnecessary fertilisation. This investment gives you more grip on the cost price! I’d like to advise you to start doing your homework in good time for the new season….. Ton Gielen Director Agro-Dyn B.V. PW-ACTUA Fresco calls for more promotion and stronger ties with the consumer It was no-one less than the new Chairman of the Management Board of Wageningen University, Professor Louise Fresco, who had come to officially open the ever successful Potato Demonstration Day in the Dutch village of Westmaas. Over 7,000 growers visited the event. ‘I’m proud to be here’, is how Fresco started her very-first, official speech since her appointment at Wageningen University. ‘The Potato Demonstration Day is a special event where trade and industry, research and government collaborate closely. That collaboration is very much appreciated in Wageningen. It’s not for nothing that this is called ‘the golden triangle’. The Dutch may be proud of the potato chain as it exists here. It would be a good thing if everyone realised that. It would at least be an encouragement to eat potatoes every day. It is now our task to reach this goal’, the Chairman emphasised during her maiden speech. She also told the Audience that she once worked with potatoes herself in Peru as a tropical plant grower at the CIP international Potato Institute. She got to know the diverse varieties of the potato via expeditions in the Andes and later in China and Indonesia. ‘Variation is now a popular subject in potato country. This is what we also need to bring to the attention of the public. Because, after all, the potato is so strongly-connected with the Netherlands.’ The image problem that the potato still sometimes has is, in her opinion, at odds with the fact that it’s such a good product nutrition-wise. It contains a lot more dietary fibre, but also iron, calcium and vitamins. Fresco: ‘This is why we have to take steps now. On the one hand, the step to approach the consumer and on the other, the step to reinforce our social and international areas of strength. Especially the latter is absolutely essential in a society where the ties with agriculture are slackening and citizens sometimes still regard the farmer only as a poison sprayer’. To press home her words, after her speech, she put on her wellies to explore every corner of the demonstration field. ● Professor Louise Fresco always has both feet on the ground. Potato World 2014 • number 4 9 Pagina 48
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