Nagele (Netherlands)

Performance testing without stress

Our station in Nagele in the Netherlands is closely linked to research into potato seed. However, the Netherlands is also important for oilseed rape due to an aspect that is peculiar to the country.

Close to delivering the hybrid potato: Our station in Nagele

When the current station manager Dick Wouda started at KWS Benelux in 2004, the station didn’t even exist. At the time, KWS had decided to stop using external service providers for sugarbeet trials in the Netherlands. “Holland is a very interesting market with an area under cultivation of around 80,000 hectares,” says Dick Wouda. Winter oilseed rape was added as a further crop in 2007, before KWS entered potato seed breeding a year later – in Nagele, one of the main areas for potato breeding worldwide.

“That was also when we introduced the idea of a station,” says Dick Wouda. The company KWS Potato now stood for potato breeding, as well as for services for sugarbeet and rapeseed and for potato breeders. That remained the case until 2019, when KWS Potato B. V. merged with an American company to form the joint venture Aardevo B. V. “As part of that, my team moved back to KWS Benelux B. V., but only organizationally and not as regards its location,” says Dick Wouda. Now Nagele boasts a special status in relation to the potato, since breeding and services are located at the same place.

Potato breeding services still account for the majority of services (around 70 percent) at the station. The remaining capacities are available for a steadily growing portfolio: corn, winter and summer oilseed rape, hybrid barley, hybrid rye and sugarbeet. Tasks include performance testing, propagation and manual crossing in the greenhouse. “We’re a multi-crop station, and that’s exactly what many employees like. Our work here is very varied.” There is never a dull moment at the station.

Why oilseed rape?

The fact that sugarbeet has played a role for KWS at the site right from the outset is due to its great market potential. However, the Netherlands offers a peculiar aspect that is useful for winter and summer oilseed rape trials: “Nagele is well-known for seed potatoes and tulip bulbs – the crops that earn the most money. There’s hardly any oilseed rape grown here in the region. That’s why the risk of cross-pollination is low.” Stress factors for oilseed rape, such as pathogens or pests, also hardly exist in the Netherlands, unlike in Germany. That was how the research and development service ultimately came to be established.

One feature that is typical for the Netherlands: “We’re the only KWS station that stands on what used to be the seabed, 4.75 meters below sea level.” However, the station not only has land that can be used for agriculture in Nagele, but also at around thirty locations in the country. “We can leverage special soil conditions right up to the Belgian border, and in the case of oilseed rape we have the option of using areas several kilometers apart,” says Dick Wouda. 32 people take care of all the work that needs to be done and are assisted by around 50 loyal external workers who can be deployed flexibly. “What we’re all eagerly waiting for – especially the employees who’ve been here for a long time – is breeding of the first hybrid potato.” They are close to achieving that in Nagele. |