ISHS Acta Horticulturae 673: IX International Symposium on Flower Bulbs
PLATFORM APPROACH FOR SUSTAINABLE FLOWERBULB PRODUCTION |
| Authors: | S. de Kool, A. Krikke |
| Keywords: | : communication, environment, integrated pest management, nutrient management |
| Abstract:
Highly developed farming systems, like flowerbulb production, are facing new challenges. Intensification and mechanisation have led to an increase of production, but have had negative side-effects on the environment as well. Research efforts have therefore focussed on finding solutions for environmental problems, caused by the modern farming systems. New technologies and strategies for integrated pest management and nutrient management were developed, but the implementation on a large scale was not successful. Even systems research, where new technologies were tested in the complexity of the farming system, did not result in a breakthrough. The cause for this lies in the social context of the farming system. The social context of flowerbulb production consists of many different stakeholders who all have their own, sometimes conflicting, goals. Among these stakeholders are national and local government, input suppliers, advisory services and environmental organisations. The Applied Plant Research (PPO) has started an initiative, where the different stakeholders who have an interest in flowerbulb production, are organised in a regional platform. PPO manages the exchange of information in the platform, where the aim is to agree on the steps to take towards sustainable flowerbulb production and to communicate these steps with one voice to the producers. This will result in the final goal of developing farming systems towards sustainable production. PPO brings results from research into the discussions and constraints that are faced by the platform of stakeholders are selected as new topics for the research agenda. The challenge for research institutes is to use this approach to reach a higher level of implementation of new developed strategies and technologies for sustainable development. | |
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