OPENING ADDRESS

It is with great pleasure that I have accepted your invitation to make the opening speech to your symposium. It is not only because protected cultivation of vegetables is an important industry and thus an important subject of policy for the Ministry of Agriculture in the Netherlands, but also because nutrition has been and will be one of the most important factors in vegetable growing.

Vegetable growing under glass can provide the population with a wider variety and at times a better quality of foodstuff than production methods in the open are able to do. When consumers are accustomed to such benefits it becomes necessary to continue to meet the requirements of a sufficient quantity and the desired internal and external quality of the products. In addition this quality should not only exist at the moment of harvesting but should continue to exist throughout the period of handling by wholesalers and retailers until use by the consumers. Moreover, citizens, politicians and also growers realize that such production methods should be exercised without an undue pollution of the environment and with the use of as little natural resources as possible. To this should be added the need for low cost prices and for a decent income for the grower and his family.

This set of requirements is highly influenced by nutrition of the crops. Of course, also other factors play a role in this process but nutrition is still as essential as a century ago. Nutrition and thus fertilization not only influence the growth of the crops, but also the quality of the products. The great problem is, that it is still insufficiently known what the desired quality exactly is and how it can be obtained. I am, therefore, very content that you start your symposium with a session on quality matters and that you also end it with such a subject. I hope that fundamental research will pay much attention to those processes in the plants which determine the quality of the salable products.

The above may indicate to you the importance that agricultural policy-makers in governmental and industrial agricultural circles in the Netherlands attribute to quality aspects of glasshouse vegetables. I think that the recent developments in soilless cultural methods provide us with ample opportunities to control during the growing season not only the quantitative production but also the qualitative production. So far practical research has concentrated on macro- and micronutrient elements, but the time may be near that also growth hormones can be distributed to control plant growth and development systematically. In your programme I have not found any contribution yet on this subject, but I hope this will have changed at the next symposium.

Apart from nutrition in relation to quality quite a number of other problems and perspectives for Dutch glasshouse horticulture require the attention of our research workers. For a number of crops the traditional consumer markets are saturated. This urges on the one hand the development and opening up of new markets, which are situated at further distances; for that purpose transport facilities and -conditions need to be adapted in order to deliver the produce in proper order. On the other hand new crops have to be introduced, which leads to a wider variety of crops and an increased consumption on the whole. Thus, increased crop diversity is one of the research goals.

The production costs are of paramount importance to the profit-earning capacity of horticulture in general and of each holding in particular. The most important factors in this field are labour and energy. Labour costs still represent over 30% of the total costs. Though the percentage of energy costs was equally high 1,5 year ago, this has considerably reduced now. However, we are convinced that energy prices at the world-market will rise again before long. So, research subjects in this field are being continued.

A lot of attention has to be paid to the improvement of management-capacities of the growers. The organisation of production processes highly influences the total production costs, especially when related to a unit of produce. A glasshouse holding has gradually become an agro-industrial enterprise, which can only survive when run in a well-planned industrial manner. Such holdings enter the information world and will need the help of research and advisory activities. Amongst others, also information on the nutritional status of the root system will be required. Here I am pointing at automation of watering and fertilization.

This, Mr. Chairman, has brought me back to the subject of your symposium. I have no doubt that it will be a good one under the guidance of Prof. Van Diest, president of the Organizing Committee and of Prof. Nowosielski, the president of your working group. I am convinced that Dr. Roorda van Eijsinga has tried his very best to have a perfect organization, this being the last symposium he could organize before enjoying retirement.

I hope, Mr. Chairman, that this symposium will be to the benefit of vegetable growing under glass in all 12 countries represented here.

Ir. W.F.S. Duffhues
Directorm of the Section Arable Crops
and Horticulture of the Ministry of
Agriculture and Fisheries


ISHS WELCOME ADDRESS

Mister Chairman, ladies and gentlemen,

On behalf of our Secretary General (Mr. Van der Borg) and the President of the ISHS (Prof. Scaramuzi), I have the honour to convey their kindest regards to all of you.

Besides this I would like to stimulate those Horticulturists, who are not yet registered as such, to inscribe the list for their membership of our Society!

This membership is an unique investment for every one who is active in Horticultural Research, since the ISHS is really an unique organization indeed.

Without hesitation I would state and say that our Society is far the best instrument for a most optimal contact with your colleagues, all over the world! In other words and in style with this assembly, your membership is the best nutrient for an extending co-ordination in the so complex framework of Horticultural Research!

As a member you have the pleasure of different advantages, such as a lot of information by means of all the publications for the lowest possible prices and special reductions for our meetings and congresses.

So, if you did not before, please go to our desk and Mrs. Van der Borg and other assistants are greeting you in their own, charming way. "You need the Society, but the Society needs you!"

It may be of interest to learn, how remarkable the ISHS was developping during the last 5 years, immediately after the big congress in Hamburg, under the great Presidentship of Prof. Fritz. From 1982 (Hamburg) till this year (after Davis) we booked many new members, namely from a little bit more than 1700 in 1982 uptil even more than 2700 now. With such a rapid growth, we will pass the total of 3000 ISHS personal members during one of the next years.

Besides this, we have now registered 264 member-organizations and we have now also 51 country-members. New initiatives have been undertaken for further enlargement, in particular in the African and South American countries.

Another new activity of our Society is the total revisement of the former "Dictionary of Horticulture". After our announcements in Davis, there is now already a stream of orders for the new edition!

In the former one were about 4.200 horticultural terms. In the next edition, however, we think about a maximum of 5.000 terms, including the most important ones for the tropics and sub-tropics and including the important terms for the arable plant-production.

Such is only possible with the great help and permission of our Ministry (Department) for Agriculture and the enthousiasm of different colleagues in the office of our Society. If you are also interested in ordering for one or more copies, please follow the announcements in "Chronica Horticulturae" and in our circulairs!

Asking your attention for our Section Vegetables I can tell you that, besides this symposium, we are preparing 9 other meetings before the next congress in 1990 in Italy. Needless to say that it takes a lot of work, including the start of our youngest working group for "Edible Fungy", but it is very nice to do so!

At the end I would like to express how much we appreciate the fact, that we always can find very enthousiastic colleagues to organize meetings just like this one for "Fertilization".

Just as for the plant-production, there has to be a good balance between the nutrients and the roots, in an optimal harmony with other factors for a good growth and development.

We may conclude that there has to be also a good harmony between our Society (the roots) and the scientific specialists (the nutrients), for making meetings as this one, succesfully.

I still remember the end of your former symposium in Poland in Skierniewice and how everyone "shifted the dessert" for the next one to the Netherlands, in particular to Dr. Roorda van Eijsinga.

We are very happy with the final decision to ask him to be the convenor for this meeting, since he found excellent colleagues for the overall organization and the further preparation.

The result of this big task may be proved during the next days! As chairman of the Section Vegetables I like to express our respect for:

• everyone who was assisting us in the organization and,
• the bigger part of you for coming to Holland!

It is nice to see you again and have a good time here!

My motto for this occassion may be the statement that:

"Good colleagues in Horticultural Research, are Friends Forever."

Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much.

Dr. J. van Kampen
Chairman Section Vegetables