Roy Michielsen
Roy Michielsen as a staff member is responsiblefor the experiments with new cultivation techniques such as strip cropping and Agroforestry.
Netherlands
ERF is a private organic agriculture company with a team of a small number of enthusiastic people. They strive daily to invest in a healthy, fertile Flevoland soil and to realize a large yield of tasty organic products. Hemus is a foundation and company and is committed to accelerate the transition to a robust and ecological agricultural system by managing experimental sites.
ERF is the largest private organic farm in the Netherlands. Its cultivated surface constitutes about 1100 ha. ERF is growing around 15 organic arable and vegetable crops such as potatoes, onions, cereals, peas, spinach and beans. To combine landscape biodiversity and sustainable production, the company has started experimenting with various kinds of mixed cropping systems and crop diversity in time and space. One of the methods used is stripcropping.
The large production scale allows for the introduction of modern techniques in the cultivation as well as in the processing of the products. The production sites are mainly located at city borders.Therefore, citizens can witness food production without being burdened by the use of synthetic pesticides. The company plays a leading role in the development of sustainable food production. It experiments with various kinds of innovative mechanization and production techniques.
Hemus continues the experiments started by ERF. Hemus does this by further integrating agriculture and nature. For example through agroforestry and the application of strip cropping in different ways. Hemus started a project to find out whether and how solar energy production and stripcropping, including flowerstrips, can go hand by hand with maintaining or even improving biodiversity. For the development of knowledge Hemus works together with WURand several parties. We like to share all the knowledge that we gain with our colleagues at home and abroad, chain parties, policymakers, students and consumers.
ERF and Hemus work very closely together and reinforce each other.
Jaco Burgers is the director of ERF BV.
Roy Michielsen as a staff member is responsiblefor the experiments with new cultivation techniques such as strip cropping and Agroforestry.
Rosemarie Slobbe is the managing director of Hemus and is responsible for experiments, development and knowledge sharing.
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