How is it that the Netherlands a small densely populated country just 43,000 sq km with over 500 people per square km manages to exports $150B in food  exports when just 60% the size of Australia?

Maximizing Agriculture through innovation.

Netherlands poduces $82,00 per acre whereas Australia produces $132/acre. Netherlands has 2% waste which goes into landfill and has the goal of 0% by 2028.

A key value of the Netherlands instrumental in their journey was the governments investment in what is now know as the Triple Helix in Agriculture.

Netherlands Triple Helix.

The ‘Triple Helix’ model of the Dutch government is the key to innovation and business opportunities in many sectors. It’s based on the concept that cooperation between the government, businesses and knowledge institutes is of the essence. One such sector is the agricultural sector. The Netherlands aims to be a circular economy by 2050, and as one of the largest agricultural exports worldwide this sectors lays a claim on this ambition. 

But how would that be applied elsewhere in the world it would require unusual circumstances to cause that type of transition here in Australia.

“Its a firm belief among the people of the Netherlands that to secure food security in the future, circular agriculture is the only way forward.”Kingdom of Netherlands

In practice the implementation of this initiative drew its “intelligence” from the use of a common data platform to share non-competitive data, and such a goal is entirely possible here in Australia. 

41% of Australians work in Agriculture and these workers will be effected by and need to embrace technology in the next ten years.

The second important transition was for the Netherlands government to understand it’s role. Its role was to facilitate cooperation between industry, acedemia and communities then get out of the way. Resisting the temptation to legistlate created a community driven initiative that quickly gained its own momentum.