Winners of Best Farmers take Netherlands in May

It was a distant dream for most of these farmers, but now it is slowly turning into a reality. The best farmers 2015 are now set for their trip to the Netherlands. The Best farmers competition is sponsored by the Dutch Embassy, KLM airlines, DFCU bank and Vision Group.

According to Josephat Byaruhanga from the Embassy of the Netherlands, the group of 13 winners will leave for The Netherlands tentatively in the 2^nd week of May, 2016.

The 2015 winners who will make the trip are Dr Tonny Kidega (Gulu), Eddy Morris Ogweng (Kole), Nicholas Matsiko (Mbarara) Dr Apollo Ataho (Ssembabule), Dr Diana Nambatya (Kampala), Corporal Alfred Okiring (Teso), Richard Bayo (West-nile), John Bagada (Masindi), Stephen Kibuuka (Youth), Godfrey Musanje (Kalangala) and Robert Okodia (Lira).

In 2015 when the 2014 best farmers visited the Netherlands, they among other places toured flower farms, vegetable farms, modern dairy farms and farm machinery dealers. The 2016 tour will take a similar course.

Winners of Best Farmers 2015

Facts and figures about agriculture in Netherlands.                                                        

 Holland is the world's 2nd largest exporter of agricultural products, after the USA. Together with the USA and France, Holland is one of the top 3 exporters of vegetables and fruit.

• The total value of Dutch agricultural exports was 75.4 billion euros in 2012.
• The Dutch agri-food industry contributes 52.5 billion euros of added value to Dutch GDP, and accounting for some 20% of Holland's total export value.
• The Netherlands is responsible for 22% of the world's potato exports.
• The Netherlands has the second highest private R&D investment rate (as % of GDP) in agri-food in Europe.
• Four of the world's top 25 food and beverage companies are Dutch and 12 have a major production site or R&D facilities in the Netherlands.
• Two Dutch universities are in the European top 10 with regard to the number of publications on agri-food subjects.
• The Food Valley region, centred at Wageningen University and Research Center, is one of the most authoritative agri-food and nutrition research centres in Europe.
• NIZO food research owns the largest food testing pilot plant in Europe and is open to the entire food and ingredient industry.
• Holland is a global market leader in machinery for, for example, poultry and red meat processing, bakery and cheese production.
• Dutch agricultural entrepreneurs use efficient and sustainable production systems and processes, resulting in a productivity that is five times higher than the European average.
• There are some 50,000 farmers, or agricultural entrepreneurs, in the Netherlands, distributed over various crop and animal sectors such as arable (crop) farming, dairy farming and pig farming.

• The agricultural sector makes up approximately 10 percent of the Dutch economy and provides work and income for more than 660,000 people.
• More than half of the Netherlands' total land surface of 4.15 million hectares is used as farmland. 56 percent if used for arable and horticultural crops, 42 percent is permanent grassland and 2 percent is used for permanent crops.
• In 2010, there were more than 10,000 hectares of greenhouses in the Netherlands. Half of this, 5,000 hectares, was used for growing vegetables.
• Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are the biggest greenhouse crops.
• The most common arable crops are: potatoes (seed, starch and edible), winter corn, summer barley, sugar beets and onions.
• Of the one hundred most competitive products produced in the Netherlands, about half derive from the agriculture and food sector.

Source: Statistics Netherlands (CBS), Dutch Federation of Agricultural and Horticultural Organisations (LTO), Wageningen University and Research Centre.