Japan: Two webinars on horticulture in a row

LAN Tokyo participated in a highly successful webinar on Greenhouse Robotics on 25 November, organised by RVO in close cooperation with the LAN team in Tokyo, and hosted another successful webinar on Efforts towards Carbon Neutrality in greenhouse horticulture on 26 November.

The webinar on Greenhouse Robotics was meant as a prelude to a smart horti innovation mission to Japan in Q2 2022. At the webinar the Dutch mission participants  (Van der Hoeven, Hoogendoorn Growth Management, Ridder, Gearbox Innovations, Certhon, BOM Group, Kubota, OnePlanet Research Center, TNO and Wageningen University & Research) presented a clear case for the need & the opportunity to accelerate the development of smart agriculture, specifically in greenhouse robotics by means of collaboration, and that Japan with its cutting-edge technology in the field of robotics is the partner to go to. The response from the Japanese audience – consisting of high-tech and agritech companies, as well as research institutes – was very positive indicating a clear interest in engaging in a discussion and exploring possible collaborations. Furthermore, the Japanese panellists at the webinar, NARO, DENSO AgriTech Solutions, Inc. and AGRIST Inc. expressed their interest and agreement to participate in the mission next year. Wageningen University & Research indicated it is keen to explore a consortium of Dutch and Japanese partners in a Seed Money Project. Clearly there is a lot of interest in this topic. LAN Tokyo is looking forward to the next step! 

The webinar recording will be found here: https://youtu.be/6Pgni4Hv8us

The webinar on Efforts towards Carbon Neutrality was the 6th in a series of  LAN Tokyo horti webinars on profitable and sustainable greenhouse business. Speakers from TNO, BOM Group and WUR presented the latest developments in Dutch horticulture to achieve fossil fuel free greenhouses. JGHA provided insight into the development in Japan’s greenhouse horticulture. It became clear that research and development is well under way and that energy efficiency and energy saving can already be greatly enhanced, contributing to profitable custom made solutions befitting local conditions.  Further steps need to be taken but the greenhouse future is fossil fuel free!

The presentations of the webinar can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/1/folders/18--nqWw4pQ7SFIwZWLa20JFCcOIbvyoC

For more information:

RVO: Bert van der Heide – bert.vanderheide@rvo.nl
TOK-LAN: tok-lnv@minbuza.nl

RoboCrops roundtable
Dutch panelists discussing the results of a poll question presented to the audience during the webinar on Greenhouse Robotics.
RoboCrops moderator
Mrs. Annie van der Riet, President of AVAG, moderating the webinar on Greenhouse Robotics.
RoboCrops DL
Ms. Denise Lutz, Agricultural Counsellor, The Netherlandse Embassy in Japan, introducing the Digitalization vision from the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature & Food Quality during the webinar on Greenhouse Robotics.
RoboCrops Bert
Mr. Bert van der Heide, Advisor International Innovation Agri-Food, RVO, discussing the Dutch proposition for collaboration with Japan on greenhouse robotics during the webinar on Greenhouse Robotics.
RoboCrops panellists
NL-JP Horti webinar DL
Ms. Denise Lutz, Agricultural Counsellor, The Netherlandse Embassy in Japan, moderating the webinar on Efforts towards Carbon Neutrality in greenhouse horticulture.