Horticulture growers increasingly face severe crop damage, often caused by soil-borne nematodes and fungi. At a global level, damage to crops impedes feeding the global population, which increases by 70 million annually.
Horticulture growers increasingly face severe crop damage, often caused by soil-borne nematodes and fungi. At a global level, damage to crops impedes feeding the global population, which increases by 70 million annually. At an individual level, growers are squeezed between widespread soil infestations affecting crop growth, and government-imposed restrictions on crop management techniques.
Products like tomato, potato, squash, lettuce, and strawberry are just a small selection of the crops that suffer from nematode infestations. In the past, one of the most popular techniques for retarding nematode populations was soil fumigation. However, for environmental reasons, such treatments have been restricted or banned.
The VDL Group has taken on the challenge of growing crops economically and environmentally with the introduction of the Cultivit concept, a patented, high-quality soil treatment machine proven to increase yields from soils infested with nematodes and fungi without applying any chemicals. The Cultivit concept consists of intensively rotovating the soil whilst blowing extremely hot air through it. The machine is self-propelled, track driven and remote controlled.
After a period of three years of product development,
prototyping and testing, VDL has reached the next milestone – building the first serial-manufactured Cultivit machines. This machine was recently presented at the SIMA fair in Paris, France.
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