Campus Almkerk grows vegetables on 9 ha strip farming and 1 ha pixel farming.
grown on their 2.5 square-metre plot. It’s been a success, and we’ve received some really enthusiastic feedback.” Last year also saw the farm start selling to res- taurant chefs. “They, too, choose what vege- tables we grow for them,” Simone continues. “It
makes the chain much shorter, with farmers much higher in the chain and with a better revenue model.” This has allowed the duo to see how the farmer has come to have a differ- ent role. “Producing high-quality food and offering consumers the opportunity to
Technology as the bottleneck in pixel farming
Wageningen University & Research (WUR) has been conducting research into pixel farming for several years now. Merel Hofmei- jer, a lecturer in organic cropping systems, notes that it is an interesting type of crop farming. “At WUR we’ve been studying strip cultivation for a while now. Pixel farming takes it another big step further by growing crops in very small squares. We’re testing it on plots of 1.5×1.5 metres and 50×50 centi- metres. But you can reduce the area even further, as the Koekkoeks have done with their 10×10 cm plots.” Pixel farming is very complex, says Hofmeijer. “It’s an extreme form of polyculture and the major limitation is technology. Precision agri- culture presents many opportunities, but
current technologies aren’t yet able to work in enough detail to mechanise pixel farming. Ro- bots can plant, sow and water individual crops, but identifying weeds in among all those dif- ferent crops is still too complex, as is harvest- ing.” Lenora Ditzler, a PhD student, compares the results of the pixels with reference plots on which crops are grown using conventional or- ganic methods. Her initial impression is that yields of potatoes on the pixels are the same as those on the reference plots. “However, the cabbages on the 50×50 cm pixels in Wagenin- gen are performing poorly, while the cabbages on the 1.5×1.5 m pixels elsewhere are per- forming better than those on the control plots. We’re still trying to find out why.” Ditzler has also observed that the crops on the pixels are
experience the process means that we’re no longer a raw materials supplier but a service provider,” says Arend. “But to make that profita- ble, you need top-notch robot technology. Otherwise it’s too labour-intensive. We’re de- veloping that technology at Campus Almkerk.”
On the experimental farm Droevendaal in Wageningen the pixel culture of potatoes, wheat, barley, cabbage, pumpkins and clover is tested. The research will last four years.
generally healthier than on the reference plots. “Even though I’ve counted the same numbers of insect pests on both plots, they cause less damage to the crops on the pixels.”
▶ FUTURE FARMING | 20 November 2020 15
PHOTO: RUUD PLOEG
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