Promoting Sustainable Potato Cultivation in Europe

Bayer CropScience and Farm Frites recently started the Food Chain Partnership initiative, designed to implement sustainable agricultural practices in potato cultivation in the Netherlands and Belgium. The goal of the partnership is to support a bottom-up approach with potato farmers, addressing value-adding sustainable potato-growing practices at individual farm levels. This is intended to minimize the environmental impacts of agricultural production in order to keep potato farming attractive in the long term. “Potato is a valuable crop for farmers in Western Europe and a key raw material for the potato processing industry, for example for flakes, mash and french fries,” says Leon Boer, director of potato procurement of Farm Frites. “Therefore, the implementation of sustainable practices is a must for local farmers. With this collaboration we want to enable our contract growers to consistently meet our high quality standards and stay competitive.”