ERDF Evergreen

Due to the increasing global need for food, it is necessary to use the available raw materials with increasing care. The landscape and the water and soil quality are under pressure. This requires a continuous and unremitting commitment to sustainable soil management, green crop protection, disease reduction, increasing food safety, enhancing biodiversity, reducing energy consumption and applying technological innovations such as automation and robotization.

The Evergreen project fulfills this task. 26 SMEs and 6 knowledge institutions work closely together. The aim is to strengthen the agricluster in North-Holland North through sustainable cooperation between companies and knowledge institutions.

This collaboration is bundled in the following program lines:

• Sustainable Soil Management: development and valorisation of agri-ecological innovations for Sustainable Soil Management and greening crop protection (in bulb cultivation, arable farming and fruit cultivation)
• Cultivation-from-the-ground-from: development and valorisation of technological innovations for Cultivation-on-water-from techniques
• Cluster strengthening: sharing knowledge and stimulating innovations in Noord-Holland by guaranteeing cooperation between the agri companies and knowledge institutions in existing networks and by setting up Living Labs.

The Evergreen project has been made possible with support from the European Regional Development Fund of the European Union (ERDF), with the aim of further developing agribusiness in the north of North Holland.