The cucumber growing sector has gone through significant changes in the last decades. Starting from the simple A-frame greenhouses in the 50s, the industry has welcomed successful, practical innovations such as the tube rail system, CHPs, substrates, growing lights, and biological pest control. Cucumber cultivation is developing towards more efficient, higher-yielding, and more sustainable production.
Together with Certhon, Koppert Biological Systems, and Crux Agribotics, BASF has given this a thought and designed how cucumbers might be grown and consumed in the near and farther future.
The four partners are convinced that the horticulture industry with its entrepreneurial mindset will move towards a more connected, data-driven, automated, and sustainable vegetable production with a stronger consumer focus in mind.
The fourth edition of the BASF’s series high-wire cucumber whitepapers entitled ‘On the Way to Smart, Automated and Consumer-oriented Cucumber Growing’ sketches an image of the cucumber cultivation of the future. It focuses on cultivation-related topics such as labor, food safety, crop protection, and sustainability and touches on the changes in the run-up to 2030 and on to 2050. It also sheds light on the consumer side, demonstrating how recent consumer trends will move cucumbers out of the commodity and how this will impact the cultivation in high-tech greenhouses.
The whitepaper can be downloaded here or on the high wire cucumber webpage.
