Agriculture Traning in Al-Ittifaq with Mr Johan Schoenmakers (PUM Netherlands)

Last September, I took part in an agriculture training for five days in a boarding school located in Ciwidey, Al-Ittifaq Boarding School. The trainer is an agronomist from PUM Netherlands, Mr Johan Schoenmakers. The training opened up my knowledge and understanding of agriculture. It's great and what a pity if I just keep it to myself. So these what i got from there. Happy reading.^^

Agriculture in Holland is very advanced and interesting. Although with an area of 42,508 Km² and only 4% of its population (17.08 million people) is work farmers or around 685,586 people, the Netherlands can become the largest exporter in the agricultural sector.

In contrast to Indonesia, for example, just on Java with an area of 128,297 Km² and 40% of the population being farmers of 150.4 million people or around 60,160,000 people, they have not been able to maximize the agricultural sector. So, actually, we have a big potential. Just imagine if we can do it, not only in Java but all location in Indonesia.

The key to the success of the agricultural sector in the Netherlands is supported by knowledge and cooperation between various parties. They always visit, check and observe their crops. They also have farmer groups or associations consisting of 8 to 10 farmers. They will discuss with each other about the plants. Besides, each farmer group also has one consultant. So if there is a problem with the cprops and no farmer in the farmer group knows the solution to the problem, the consultant can identify it and provide the right suggestion or solution. But if the consultant does not know about it, he/she will find out about other experts. For example, by giving the sample to universities or related institution.

Agriculture in the Netherlands also received full support from the government. For the government, agriculture is food security and livelihood for its citizens. So it must be fully supported. This is realized by the existence of three places devoted to agricultural research.

Furthermore, farmers in the Netherlands received information from sellers of pesticides, seeds and fertilizers. So they get better information for the plants not only what is written on the packaging. The companies have carried out various studies that are scattered throughout the world. For example, BEJO seed company, sellers will provide the best seed advice for a particular region. Koppert (Dutch) and Biobest (Belgian), pesticide companies, they use natural enemies as a biological control to eradicate pests. The pesticide sellers will go to the farmers, look their farm, identify pests and diseases in plants and give advice on what the right pesticide for the plant. As for fertilizer, farmers need to do several stages, soil analysis is the most important step. By knowing the condition of the soil, we can find out the levels of nutrients in the soil and fertilizer levels that must be given.

Mr Johan Schoenmakers told us that he use to be a teacher at vocational school. He has three students that success in strawberries farming. Initially, strawberries are not able to produce in the winter. So to meet strawberries needs, they got it from southern Europe. Because of that, they tried to produce strawberries in all seasons with good quality.

Good quality means good in appearance (form and colour), taste, growth, and good for the environment and there are products supply guarantee too. The higher the quality, the higher the price.

To realize it, the farmers must have knowledge. For example less chemical but less damage so less risk. In other words, we need to minimizing chemical products such as pesticide but still minimizing plant damage. Here the steps that farmers take. 

1. Using greenhouse with the right technologies for the plant.
2. Cooperate with the government. The government assist in coordination such as importing the best seeds for the farmers to plant.
3. Collaboration with the experts to supply the best fertilizer, pesticides, seeds and agriculture machine to work more effectively and efficiently.
4. Soil analyze to know the soil characteristic.

In general, that's Dutch agriculture. Next time, insyaAllah I will share the detail information about it, such as how to calculate soil nutrient that soil needs, etc.

Overall, I'm excited about the training. The learning method is superb. We learn in class and field as well.  As we know, the key is visiting crops. We look for problems in fields and discuss them in the class. The participants are from various backgrounds (farmers, students, teachers, entrepreneur). That's the point so we know many points of view. Of course, Mr Johan Schoenmakers as the senior expert assist us and share really good information.

If you guys curious about the training, you can check it on my youtube channel.

P.S. sorry the videos are shaking. Mostly because I laugh. But I hope you can enjoy it.