PHOTO: BERT JANSEN PHOTO: BERT JANSEN


PIXEL FARMING ▶▶▶


Growing 80 different plants together on 10×10 cm plots


BY JAN ENGWERDA I


t’s already apparent as you approach Arend and Simone Koekkoek’s ‘Campus Almkerk’ in the Netherlands that this is not your average farm. There is a rather strik-


ing robot out in the field, Robot One, which Arend and Simone built themselves to make ‘pixel farming’ possible. On one part of their farm, they grow crops on ‘plots’ measuring 10×10 cm, which they call pixels. The idea is to imitate a natural setting in which various species of plants grow in combination with one another. This keeps plants healthy without the use of chemicals, and it promotes biodiversity. Wageningen University & Re- search was so interested in this extreme form of polyculture that it initiated a special four- year study. Pixel farming is very labour-intensive without the assistance of a robot, however, which is why Robot One was developed. Arend Koek- koek shows off the machine’s skills: it has a working width of three metres, with room for ten arm attachments, and there are currently five weeders suspended from them. Each arm can move to the left and right independently of the others, and the height of each arm can be varied too. This allows the robot to weed where it is needed, and at the right depth. The robot also has 3D cameras and sensors. The weeder can be replaced with other tools, which means that the robot can also spade, harrow or rototill.


Pilot farm for polyculture Arend and Simone bought their 10-hectare crop farm in 2016, and they now grow wheat, barley, oats, and beans in six-metre-wide strips over ninehectares. On the remaining hectare, they go significantly further and ap- ply the pixel farming method. The land is di- vided into micro-plots measuring 10×10 cen- timetres. One plant is placed in each square, or a larger plant may occupy multiple squares. All of the crops are grown intermixed with


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Arend and Simone Koekkoek grow 80 types of vegetables on micro-plots. The plants stay healthier in a pixel-based system like this, but a robot is essential.


others. This year, they have been growing 80 types of vegetables. Robot technology is essential for this kind of growing system, as Arend explains: “Ultimately, we want to devel- op a robot that can sow a mix of crops into the pixels using GPS. This robot can then prepare the land, sow, water and apply fertiliser. It uses sensors to only carry out the actions that an individual plant needs.” However, Arend and Simone ran into a significant problem when designing the pixel system. “There is a great deal of knowledge available about crop farming on large plots based on monocul- tures,” notes Simone. “But little is known about which plants like to grow to gether and which do not. In that sense, we are a pilot farm for polyculture. We’ve noticed that vegetable


crops are very healthily when grown in combi- nations. The monoculture practices used in contemporary agriculture reduce biodiversity, making crops more susceptible to disease.”


Veg boxes for consumers Just growing crops was not enough for Arend and Simone; they aim to bring consumers closer to the food production process. “That’s why we began offering veg boxes to consum- ers in 2018,” explains Simone. “Around a hun- dred customers have signed up. Each custom- er is allocated a 2.5 square-metre plot and they can choose what we grow on it. They re- ceive a photo of their ‘veg plot’ every week. During the growing season, customers receive boxes filled with the vegetables that were


There are five hoes attached to Robot One. Each can move independently to the left and the right. The height can also be adjusted per hoe. In this way the robot can hoe in the right place and at the right depth.


▶ FUTURE FARMING | 20 November 2020


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