Project

Cultivating Digital AgTech NL-NZ

In November 2024 an Innovation Mission from The Netherlands to New Zealand: “Agtech, Robotization and Digitalization in Horticulture” took place. This Seed Money Project is the next step to really build and kick off collaborative projects. The topics are: Precision spraying and monitoring; High throughput phenotyping; Novel fruit sensors.

The NL and NZ horticulture sectors have many things in common. For both countries horticulture sector is a vital component of the country’s economy. Both countries face the same key Issues in the AgriTech landscape:

  • High Production Costs: labor (especially in horticulture), energy, and material costs are high, driving the need for efficiency gains.
  • Environmental Concerns: challenges in reducing agro-chemicals, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen deposition, and water pollution (quality and quantity).
  • Land Scarcity: With limited arable land and high urbanization (NL) and many areas unsuitable for production (NZ), expanding traditional horticulture is difficult, necessitating innovative solutions for higher productivity

 

In this project the following activities are carried out:

·         Activity 1: Activate networks and expert team selection. Involved parties besides WUR are Vertigo Technologies (NL), Fresh Forward Breeding & Marketing (NL), Delphy (NL), Plant & Food Research (NZ), Peek Robotics (NZ), KWKiwi Ltd. (NZ), AgriTech New Zealand.

·         Activity 2: Topic precision spraying: Meetings, interviews and summaries with NL and NZ experts to identify future research and development projects in the area of precision spraying. This will include an action plan to exploit the use high-tech solutions and knowledge from NL and NZ industrial key players.

·         Activity 3: Topic phenotyping and digital-twins: Similar to activity 2 but then focussing on hight-throughput phenotyping.

·         Activity 4: Topic fruit sensors: Similar to activity 2 but then focussing on novel fruit sensors and fruit quality.

·         Activity 5: Visit of WUR experts to NZ: A small delegation will bring a visit to NZ to deepen the connections and discussions of activity 1, 2 and 3. SMEs will be invited to join WUR.

·         Activity 6: Draft proposal(s) for joint follow up: Identify most appropriate funding instruments (e.g. PPP, EU-H2020) for joint projects. Collecting and fusing results of activity 2,3 and 4 and outline and draft proposal(s).

Publicaties