What Tanzania can learn from Netherlands farmers on smart agriculture

Brabant, Holland. Farmers around the world have been advised to practise smart farming that uses such technologies as crop protection, sensing as well as data, all of which have proved to be efficient with less environmental impact while saving costs and increasing yields.

A farmer, Van den Borne, who runs a big farm in the Province of Brabant, Netherlands, close to the border with Belgium said this to journalists from different parts of the world. The reporters are in a tour under the sponsorship of the International Federation of Agriculture Journalists in the Netherlands learning about Dutch Roots with a theme: Small Country, Big Solutions.

The journalists toured various farms to learn different programmes including smart and silt farming where farmers learn a step further from what they practise including precision farming.

Mr Van said he specialized in growing potatoes for the production of French fries. “We practice our farming mainly on sandy soils, cultivating 450 hectares,” he said, adding, “Precision farming has proved to be successful as GPS prevents overlap of fertiliser and sprays on irregular shaped fields”.

Explaining, he said precision farming entails mapping fields by having data that is not out of context, soil scanning by calculating yield potential out of soil conductivity.

Other precision farming practises include calculation of tram lines, organic fertiliser, soil cultivation, variable planting, irrigation, crop sensing, drove sensing, crop measuring , harvesting and storage.