Potato Demo Day Westmaas

Potato Demo Day 2012: 'Sustainably towards top yields'

The potato is a crop with enormous potential. Global demand for food will increase on the one hand through the rapidly growing world population and on the other hand through the increasing global prosperity. That requires that food production is stepped up. It is of the greatest importance that this is done in a sustainable and responsible manner. The potato can play a prominent role here because of its favourable cultivation characteristics with regard to the use of essential raw materials such as sweet water. Consequently, all over the world the potato is considered one of the crops that can produce the food for a growing world population. That explains why PPO/NAO have opted for the theme 'Sustainably towards top yields'.

The Netherlands and the surrounding countries have a prominent position in the field of potato cultivation. As ultimate knowledge suppliers we can contribute a lot to achieving the objectives in the field of sustainable cultivation. Variety development in the seed potato sector is essential in this respect. It will be obvious that sustainability always comes first.

For many years, yield increase has not been an objective in itself;particularly quality improvement was and remains important to comply with market requirements. However, yield increase will also have to become one of the objectives in order to keep up with the growing demand. Not only on our fields, but certainly also on those of our foreign colleagues far and near. That means added value for the arable farmer's knowledge and expertise. The sector is facing the challenge and has the ambition to take a next step towards 'Sustainably towards top yield'. There still remains a lot to be done to achieve efficiency benefits. The sector is really putting in a great effort and will show you the state of affairs at the Potato Demo Day 2012.