New Dutch-Japanese joint venture in innovative crop management

Plant Data Holland, a joint venture company with Ehime University in Japan and Minori Institute, is a system engineering company that focuses on the high tech agri-food sector in the EU. The crop consulting service is based on “Plant Data" from multiple measurements and how to use the data for environmental control for commercial farmers.

The quality and yield success of commercially successful expert farmers is considered the result of a seat-of-the-pants approach known as ‘implicit knowledge’. Plant Data Holland believe under uncontrollable natural circumstances, crop management relies on ‘implicit knowledge’, and it is difficult to replace that with ‘codified knowledge’.

The Netherlands has been trying to change crop management from ‘implicit knowledge’ to ‘codified knowledge’ aimed at maximizing productivity in high-level, large-scale, and environmentally controllable greenhouses. The first step is the measurement of plant-growth status and changes.

Plant Data Holland’s goal is to establish innovative cultivation techniques based on high accuracy, high time resolution, high spatial resolution, and intuitive plant measurement. This ‘codified knowledge’ construction (effective crop-production methods that are impossible for humans to accomplish intuitively) would exceed practical farmer’s ‘implicit knowledge’.

The new company offers appropriate plant-measurement information depending on the farmer’s technical skill and demand. Measurement of the plant has been generally performed once a week, but their measurement techniques will allow daily measurement of the growth state. The complex analysis of these measurement data and a variety of environmental parameters, more accurate confirmation of the production status and development forecast of the plant, makes it possible to detect at an early stage the abnormal value of the plant.

Measurement and analysis of the plant is done automatically every day. The measured data can be shared by a company or group. By using the visualization technology, it enables grading of producers of production techniques in the group. Plant Data Holland collaborates with crop consultants to optimise crop management based on plant-measurement data.

Plant growth Visualisation: Web (SNS) service and software sales .
Chlorophyll Fluorescence Imaging Robot: development, sales strategy, and use of measurements from data consulting.
 Plant measurement・Analysis software: proposal of the appropriate measurement protocol.

For more information:
Hiroyuki Imai
Minori Holland B.V. / Minori Institute B.V.
T : +31105220580
M : +31621945724(NL)
M : +819070092583(JP)
imai@plantdata.net
nl.plantdata.net