Cultivation on the Water is a program in the ‘Evergreen project’ of Greenport Noord-Holland Noord. Development Agency Noord-Holland Noord is supporting the implementation of the Cultivation on the Water project, which ran from the beginning of 2016 to the end of 2019.
Within the project, a consortium of agribusinesses and knowledge institutes is working on, among other things, the development of Cultivation-from-the-soil techniques. Due to the increasing global need for food, it is necessary to handle the available raw materials, such as water, energy and minerals, with increasing care. ‘Cultivation from the ground’ contributes to this turnaround and is one of the spearheads in Noord-Holland Noord when it comes to innovative, sustainable technologies.
Growing on water is now clear. Crops do not reach with their roots in the soil, but in water enriched with nutrients. This makes a difference in weeds, the risk of mold and the product is sand-free. In addition, the yield per hectare is many times greater than with traditional cultivation, because cultivation can be done all year round and cultivation is automated. The possibilities for this cultivation are being fully researched and developed. It is now a question of scaling up this cultivation approach and also making production cost-effective.
