Wageningen, The Netherlands
September 25, 2008
 Source: Wageningen UR
- Newsletter of the Plant Sciences Group September 2008
The
new buildings and centralisation of facilities at Unifarm, the
unit which supports Wageningen UR
plant and crop research, are nearly finished. Until recently
Unifarm managed eight locations in Wageningen. After an
intensive construction period, Wageningen Campus now houses a
unique and wide spectrum of facilities, which are concentrated
on the Radix grounds near the Organic Experimental and Training
Farm Droevendaal and the Nergena greenhouses.
The 50 Unifarm employees have many years of experience in areas
relevant to Wageningen in research. The Greenhouses and Climate
Rooms and Field Experiments teams perform around 350 application
forms fot tests per year for around 35 WU chair groups, ten DLO
research groups and 20 external companies. Unifarm is fully ISO
9001:2000 certified.
The Unifarm facilities on the Radix grounds are divided over
three buildings: Serre, Agros and Klima. Radix Serre houses the
personnel department, greenhouse and the service building. The
greenhouse of 9,000 m2 gross (7,000 m2 net) consists of over 100
compartments, varying from 16 to 144 m2. The compartments up to
64 m2 are enclosed, and air vents fitted with insect screens are
used in those larger than 64 m2. Many different breeding systems
are possible, for instance with soil, substrate gutters and
growing tables, with or without ebb and flood systems. Lighting,
temperature, day length, screening, relative humidity and CO2
levels can be precisely controlled. In addition, totally
enclosed and fully conditioned compartments are available for
research with quarantine organisms, such as genetically modified
organisms and plant pathogens. There are also cold/freezer rooms
and processing rooms. Serre also houses the cold/freezer rooms
of the Centre for Genetic Resources and Bijen@wur, the bee
laboratory.
 The
250 ha Unifarm experimental fields on clay, peat and sandy soils
are managed from Radix Agros, and include arable farming,
outdoor cultivation and the breeding of bulb flowers and potted
plants. Agros houses the machinery park with equipment for both
small-scale experiments and large-scale cultivation. The sheds
can be used to dry or store products. Wet and dry laboratories
process crops and soil samples, and there is both a
seed-processing and milling section. Agros is also the location
of the new mushroom cultivation facilities, with three modern
cultivation cells and the requisite processing rooms.
Radix Klima houses 36 climate cells for plant breeding between
nine to 16 m2. No less than 28 cells have a lamp ceiling
(dimmable TL or HPI/SONT), with the other eight having cupboards
for multiple layered cultivation. The temperature, RV, light and
CO2 dosage in the cells can be precisely controlled. Unifarm
also has 18 climate incubators with a cultivation surface of 1
m2 for small-scale experiments. Klima also holds 12 cells for
insect cultivation. The connecting insect greenhouse is used for
insect breeding and research with plants.
Although the opening of the Radix buildings means Unifarm is
ready for the future, it will continue investing in the
development of new education and research possibilities as we
face the challenges ahead. |
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