Japan and Holland strengthen agricultural cooperation

The Netherlands Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) jointly organized on Wednesday 4 October the second subcommittee meeting about Innovation in Horticulture. The sub-committee was organised in the framework of the “Japan-Netherlands Dialogue on Agricultural Cooperation” which started in 2016. The meeting took place at Tokyo Big Sight during Agro Innovation 2017, an international agricultural and horticultural machinery and equipment exhibition.

The sub-committee meeting was titled: ‘Driving innovation through public-private-academic collaboration and disseminating research and development outcomes in agriculture’. More than 25 representatives from the Netherlands and Japan attended the meeting, including Mr. Don Kester of Van der Hoeven Horticulture projects, Dr. Jochen Hemming of Wageningen University & Research, Mr. Dennis Steentjes of Delphy Japan, and Dr. Evert Jan Krajenbrink, Agricultural Counsellor of the Netherlands Embassy.

Dr. Kazumasa Shioya (Vice president of NARO) and Mr. Don Kester discussed examples of technological development through public-private-academic collaboration. Mr. Hiroaki Yamada (Director MAFF, Technology policy) and Dr. Jochen Hemming discussed future directions of technological developments in the greenhouse sector, like robotics, ICT and the role of the golden triangle. Finally, Mr. Yuichi Otsuka (dep. Director Extension Service) and Mr. Dennis Steentjes of Delphy Japan discussed different ways of disseminating existing knowledge, like the privatized and commercial system which is used in the Netherlands, compared to the free service in Japan.

The Japan-Netherlands Dialogue on Agricultural Cooperation was established based on the Joint Statement between the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands and the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries of Japan signed on 15th December 2016, with an aim to promote bilateral cooperation in the field of agriculture between the two countries. The first-year dialogue takes place in 2017, which consists of a few subcommittee meetings and a plenary session. The first subcommittee took place on Monday 8 May 2017 and was focused on the ‘desired role of producer organizations to increase farmers’ sales force’. For more details, please click here.