Feb. 9, 2010 — Despite the recession, the Dutch government is dedicating 900 million euros ($1.3 billion Cdn) to innovation in the agricultural and horticultural sectors.

In fact this is actually the highest item in the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Food Quality’s (LNV) budget. This shows how seriously the Netherlands is taking the efforts to ensure that glasshouse cultivation should be climate neutral by 2020. One item on the investment agenda is a contingency fund for drilling for geothermal heat. A further 4.1 million euro is available for energy producing glasshouses and 25 million for research into the most efficient way of converting sunlight to nutrients and energy for plants and algae.

 Source: www.minlnv.nl (Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality).