A shortlist of nominees, all but two of them Dutch, has been announced for the GreenTech Innovation Award 2016. An international jury has selected a shortlist of 15 nominees from 73 entries in three categories: Production, Equipment and Automation Solutions. One of these three winners will be chosen as the overall winner on June 14, during the opening event of GreenTech Amsterdam.
“As jury, we are very pleased with both number and quality of the applications for the GreenTech Innovation Award 2016. It shows the high level of innovation in the greenhouse horticulture sector”, said jury chairman Aalt Dijkhuizen, former president of Wageningen UR and appointed by the Dutch Minister of Economic Affairs as figurehead of the Topsector Agri & Food in the Netherlands.
Shortlisted in the Production category are:
- RootmaXX by Saint-Gobain Cultilene – a new stone wool cube which claims to give a 5-25 per cent higher root mass thanks to a newly patented fibre.
- ISO Cutting and Planting robot 1800 by ISO Group – which automatically analyses the geometry of a stem, cut the stem to the right length and plants it in a pot.
- ISO Plantsampler by ISO Group – which automates the gathering of DNA material from the leaves of trial seedlings.
- GrowCoon by Maan BioBased Products – a biodegradable plug casing which help keeps the root ball together.
- Biospreader by Royal Brinkman – which provides a uniform distribution of predatory mites in the crop.
Shortlisted in the Equipment category are:
- 2SaveEnergy covering by 2SaveEnergy – a twin-skinned glasshouse covering claimed to combine high insulation and light transmission with an affordable.
- Triton Bioreactor by Van der Ende Groep – a biological treatment which yields clean irrigation water rich in oxygen and microbial biodiversity.
- AntiReflect by Mardenkro – a glass treatment which can be applied to existing greenhouses.
- NUF water recycling by NUFiltration (Israel) – which enables purification of irrigation water without use of chemicals, thermal or biological treatments.
- ValkScreenVision by Van der Valk Horti Systems – a quick, clean and safe system for inserting glasshous screens.
- Priva Deleafing Robot by Priva – a robot which removes leaves from tomato plants completely independently and in an economically profitable manner.
Shortlisted in the Automation Solutions category:
(with one remaining undisclosed)
- Paskal Growth Analyser by Paskal Technologies (Israel) – a wireless weighing system to continuously monitor plant growth in the glasshouse.
- C.H.I.M.P (Crop Health & Information Monitoring Platform) by Phenokey – which measures control and plant health parameters for remote monitroing and decision support.
- HortiMaX-Go! by Ridder Hortimax Group – a user-friendly and affordable horticultural computer for controlling both greenhouse climate and irrigation.
All nominated products will be on display at GreenTech’s InnovationLAB.
Source: GreenTech. Photo: Mario Bentvelsen.
