The Flower bulb region looks beautiful three months a year, but the region unfortunately also has a less beautiful image. When the region makes the news, it is often about the crop protection products that are used in bulb cultivation. And that is not surprising, because it has always been the case that these crop protection products, which are used worldwide in agriculture, provide a better yield, but are harmful to people and the environment.
Fortunately, developments in this area are moving quickly, fewer and fewer resources are being used and the bulb boys themselves also want to produce more sustainably. Johan is with Daan to talk about this topic and to view the latest crop protection machine that Daan has recently bought.
Not only do new sprayers ensure better use of resources, but other innovations also help. Ben Langeslag is an expert in precision agriculture and he shows Ruben and Johan a scanning machine. This machine measures various soil properties of a plot. Based on this, a map is made that indicates where on the plot something needs to be sprayed or not, instead of a grower spraying the same amount everywhere on the plot. This not only saves resources, but also a lot of money.
We think the Flower bulb region is beautiful, but what do the birds actually think of this area? Is the region a suitable area for birds to live and reproduce? Johan goes into the bulb fields early in the morning with Paul Venderbosch of Agrarische Natuur en Landschapsvereniging Geestgrond to spot birds in de bulbfields. And they would prefer to encounter a rare partridge, but that would be very special. And finally, we hear from the bollenjongens which birds they know and what they do when they see a nest in the field.
