De globale trend van bevolkingsgroei en verstedelijking leidt onherroepelijk tot meer vraag naar voedsel in de stad. Tegelijkertijd is er een trend in de vraag naar duurzaam en/of lokaal geproduceerd voedsel te herkennen. Het in de stad produceren van voedsel, Urban Farming, kan een antwoord bieden op beide trends. Er zijn verschillende vormen van Urban Farming te benoemen. Eén daarvan is verticale landbouw, waarbij er in hoogbouw in de stad teelt van groente, fruit en wellicht ook vis en vlees plaatsvindt. Hoewel er inmiddels veel kennis over verticale landbouw voorhanden is, zijn er nog altijd geen high-tech verticale boerderijen in Nederland gerealiseerd. De hoge mate van leegstand van kantoorpanden in Amsterdam in combinatie met de aanwezige kennis biedt veel mogelijkheden voor de realisatie van een hoogwaardige ‘Urban Farm’ in deze stadsregio. In dit boekwerk leest u de resultaten van het toegepast onderzoek naar verticale stadslandbouw, ook wel vertical farming genoemd. Dit is één van de twee publicaties van het onderzoeksproject Sustainable Systems for Food. Het project is uitgevoerd door het CleanTech onderzoeksprogramma met behulp van RAAK-mkb subsidie van de Stichting Innovatie Alliantie. Deze publicatie is bedoeld voor professionals geïnteresseerd in de technologische aspecten van verticale stadslandbouw. Het boek geeft inzicht in wat verticale stadslandbouw inhoudt en welke technologieën en innovatieve concepten nu en in de toekomst voorhanden zijn om verticale stadslandbouw te bedrijven. Het boek laat ondernemers en beleidsmakers zien hoe verticale teelt kan bijdragen aan hun doelstellingen en voor welke uitdagingen ze staan. Daarnaast geeft het eigenaren van leegstaande gebouwen inzicht in de mogelijkheden en implicaties van verticale teelt voor hun pand. Voor bedrijven die technologische systemen ontwikkelen en leveren voor gebouwen en (glas)tuinbouw, biedt deze publicatie een blik op de toekomstige technologische mogelijkheden en geeft het een aanzet tot een strategische ontwikkelagenda voor verticale stadslandbouw. Tot besluit toont deze publicatie de onderzoeksactiviteiten die de HvA op dit terrein ontplooit, waaronder de ontwikkeling van vertical farming prototypes en demonstrators, en waar voor eenieder mogelijkheden liggen voor samenwerking.
DOCUMENT
Inaugural lecture as Lector Precision Livestock Farming at HAS University of Applied Sciences on October 14, 2016. PLF, Precision Livestock Farming, uses technologies to continuously monitor animal behaviour, animal health, production and environmental impact.
DOCUMENT
Vertical farming is a promising new technology for increasing crop yields per square meter. However, little research has been done so far in people's perception of this technology. The aim of this project was to gain a better understanding of consumers' attitude on small scale vertical farming at home. This was achieved by developing a prototype that uses sensor and LED technology for growing food at home and deploying it in a user study. The prototype was built to give users a genuine feeling of what it would be like to use a small scale vertical farming system. The user study showed that the attitudes towards the system were mostly positive. However, a fully autonomous system is not desirable and there are concerns regarding food safety.
DOCUMENT
The objective of this book ‘An introduction to Smart Dairy Farming’ is to provide insight in the development of the Smart Dairy Farming (SDF) concept and advise as to how to apply this knowledge in the field of activities of students from universities of applied science. The information in this book includes background information and comprehensive insight in the concept of SDF.
DOCUMENT
In de huidige landbouwsector worden grote hoeveelheden gewasbeschermingsmiddelen gebruikt, wat leidt tot hoge kosten voor telers. De verwachte aanscherping van wetgeving dwingt de industrie om efficiëntere spuitmethoden te onderzoeken. Een veelbelovende oplossing is het implementeren van precisiespuiten, die niet alleen het gebruik van chemicaliën vermindert, maar ook kostenbesparingen oplevert en kan voldoen aan strengere milieuwetgeving. De technologie achter precisiespuiten maakt gebruik van real-time data, verzameld door camera's op de spuit, of van taakkaarten waarvoor van tevoren het land is in gescand. Beide mogelijkheden hebben verschillende kosten en besparingen. Hoewel er momenteel onvoldoende concrete data beschikbaar is om definitieve conclusies te trekken, wordt verwacht dat met een toename van het aantal precisiespuiten op het land betrouwbaardere resultaten kunnen worden verkregen. Op de lange termijn lijkt de aanschaf van een real-time precisiespuit aantrekkelijk, vooral voor grotere telers. De ontwikkeling die gepaard gaan met het verzamelen van meer data zal ook een beter inzicht geven in de effecten van precisiespuiten op de gewaskwaliteit, wat van belang is voor het berekenen van de effecten op de kosten.
DOCUMENT
Climate change is undermining the importance and sustainability of cooperatives as important organizations in small holder agriculture in developing countries. To adapt, cooperatives could apply carbon farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance their business by increasing yields, economic returns and enhancing ecosystem services. This study aimed to identify carbon farming practices from literature and investigate the rate of application within cooperatives in Uganda. We reviewed scholarly literature and assed them based on their economic and ecological effects and trade-offs. Field research was done by through an online survey with smallholder farmers in 28 cooperatives across 19 districts in Uganda. We identified 11 and categorized them under three farming systems: organic farming, conservation farming and integrated farming. From the field survey we found that compost is the most applied CFP (54%), crop rotations (32%) and intercropping (50%) across the three categorizations. Dilemmas about right organic amendment quantities, consistent supplies and competing claims of residues for e.g. biochar production, types of inter crops need to be solved in order to further advance the application of CFPs amongst crop cooperatives in Uganda.
DOCUMENT
This paper presents an integral assessment tool for the social and ecological embedding of a farm. In transitioning towards sustainable farming systems, a product-baed view as well as a location-based view is needed. The location-based perspective focuses on the combined effects of farming practices on the social and ecological context of the farm. Based on a need expressed in practice, and inspired by Doughnut economics, the FarmingTree Tool was designed. Using a qualitative assessment of on-farm activities for six social and ten ecological themes, this farm assessment tool supports awareness of and communication on the situation of the farm. Testing of the tool in various contexts showed a high added value for communication between the farmer and stakeholders with an interest in the development of the farm. The tool creates a shared understanding of the farm allowing to discuss farm development options in a clear manner with stakeholders with a specific interest in the development of the farm, like local food systems or in a lesser-tenant situation and as well students in farming related studies. The tool strengthens the farmer in conveying the 'story' of the farm in its entirety and its complexity. Keywords: farming, assessment tool, Doughnut Economics, strategy, embedding
DOCUMENT
An important contribution to the environmental impact of agro-food supply chains is related to the agricultural technology and practices used in the fields during raw material production. This problem can be framed from the point of view of the Focal Company (FC) as a raw material Green Supplier Selection Problem (GSSP). This paper describes an extension of the GSSP methodology that integrates life cycle assessment, environmental collaborations, and contract farming in order to gain social and environmental benefits. In this approach, risk and gains are shared by both parties, as well as information related to agricultural practices through which the FC can optimize global performance by deciding which suppliers to contract, capacity and which practices to use at each supplying field in order to optimize economic performance and environmental impact. The FC provides the knowledge and technology needed by the supplier to reach these objectives via a contract farming scheme. A case study is developed in order to illustrate and a step-by-step methodology is described. A multi-objective optimization strategy based on Genetic Algorithms linked to a MCDM approach to the solution selection step is proposed. Scenarios of optimization of the selection process are studied to demonstrate the potential improvement gains in performance.
DOCUMENT
Urban farming projects often involve the (temporarily) redevelopment of urban space by local co-productions of citizens and/or entrepreneurs. To realize their ambitions these coalitions often need support of public (government) resources such as time, money, space and regulation (Green Deal Stadslandbouw, 2013). This paper asks the question to what extent the development of urban farming projects can be understood as an example of planning through direct citizen participation/ participatory governance (e.g. Cornwall, 2004; Roberts, 2004) and what this means for the role of the municipal planning professional or civil servant in making these projects successful. Literature on the role of the municipal planner or civil servant in urban farming projects mainly concerns the role as enabler of projects given the many difficulties for projects. However, when looked at the development of urban farming as an example of citizen participation/ participatory governance and the transfer of social functions towards society other roles and tasks of planners seem to be important to make urban farming successful. This discussion paper looks to the role of planners and civil servants in some related government domains such as landscape (e.g. Van Dam et al. 2008, 2010, 2011) and neighbourhood development (e.g. Frieling et al., 2014) to complement our understanding of the role of planners in making urban farming projects successful. With this analysis the paper sets the scene for further research into tools for the planning professional or civil servant to support urban farming. In the paper the situation in Amsterdam serves as an example.
DOCUMENT
Animal welfare is a multidimensional phenomenon and currently its on-farm assessment requires complex, multidimensional frameworks involving farm audits which are time-consuming, infrequent and expensive. The core principle of precision agriculture is to use sensor technologies to improve the efficiency of resource use by targeting resources to where they give a benefit. Precision livestock farming (PLF) enables farm animal management to move away from the group level to monitoring and managing individual animals. A range of precision livestock monitoring and control technologies have been developed, primarily to improve livestock production efficiency. Examples include using camera systems monitoring the movement of housed broiler chickens to detect problems with feeding systems or disease and leg-mounted accelerometers enabling the detection of the early stages of lameness in dairy cows. These systems are already improving farm animal welfare by, for example, improving the detection of health issues enabling more rapid treatment, or the detection of problems with feeding systems helping to reduce the risk of hunger. Environmental monitoring and control in buildings can improve animal comfort, and automatic milking systems facilitate animal choice and improve human-animal interactions. Although these precision livestock technologies monitor some parameters relevant to farm animal welfare (e.g. feeding, health), none of the systems yet provide the broad, multidimensional integration that is required to give a complete assessment of an animal’s welfare. However, data from PLF sensors could potentially be integrated into automated animal welfare assessment systems, although further research is needed to define and validate this approach.
DOCUMENT
