The Water Quality Innovation Award, presented on Thursday at HortiContact, was won by The Transparent Gardeners. Delphy's QMS Water was also in the prizes.
Fed up with all the negative publicity about water quality, the group of entrepreneurs and organizations behind De Transparante Tuinders decided to take action themselves. The action, by Plant-E, WUR and Division Q, was awarded the prize by Greenports Netherlands.
The project involves the joint development of an approach, measuring method and sensors that allow participating growers to measure their own water quality, screen their farms and, after successfully demonstrating that they have no leaks, share this information transparently with the general public.
There is only one condition: at least 10 growers must participate. The first parties have joined in, but they are urgently looking for more carters, shares Bart van Meurs after winning the prize. He calls on growers to come forward. The prize received is a cheque of 10,000 euros, which will be divided among these first 10 companies as a discount on participation.
Justin Vievermanns of Plant-e, Tim Koning of Division Q and Jos Balendonck of Wageningen University & Research in front of the KasLokaal where the prize was presented at HortiContact on Thursday afternoon.
QMS Water
The winner of the social innovation is Delphy with QMS Water. Horticulturists learn from each other by frequently talking to each other, especially on the basis of hard data, for example, by sharing data on the water and fertilizer requirements of crops. Watering precisely enough ensures less leaching of fertilizers and better water quality. Offering hard data through a platform encourages the user group to come together and learn from the data and from each other.
