The aim is to further develop innovative concepts for the production, processing and marketing of agricultural products. The support applies to investments, but also to the associated studies, costs for trial installations, costs for software development and control programs, and expenses of external supervisors and experts. Experience shows that innovation, especially in the initial phase, requires an initiator and often a specialist coach.
Joke Schauvliege: “I'm proud to note that again a lot of innovative ideas have emerged in the various sectors. The Flanders Agrofood Valley can count on a sustainable, innovative and future-oriented farming sector.”
The selected projects include various themes aimed at sustainable energy, animal welfare, precision agriculture, emission reduction, short chain, labor quality, manure processing, cultivation techniques, and so on. More information in Dutch is available at http://lv.vlaanderen.be/nl/subsidies/vlif-steun/projectsteun-voor-innovaties-de-landbouw.
Some of the selected projects:
- A swing system for continuously producing strawberry breeds. Cultivating of continuously producing breeds, among other things, results in a more evenly harvesting (less delivery peaks). The swing system makes it possible, also with continuously producing breeds to grow intensively by alternately allowing the even and odd cultivation gutters to capture the most sunlight;
- A project that produces manure pots out of cattle manure for use in horticulture;
- A project using the residual heat of a pocket fermenting machine for pork fertilizer for vegetable fermentation (feed for pigs made from vegetable waste);
- A project where daily picked hops are pelleted with the aim of increasing the quality of the hops when used in the brewing process;
- A project with an increased strawberry tray field for the purpose of more efficient use of plant protection products and fertilizers;
- A project that transforms a plant machine so that planting at two different driving distances can be done, in this way the same plant machine can be used for both the cultivation of celeriac as well as of white cabbage.