Our roots
Aequator Groen & Ruimte was part of the formal Dutch Extension service of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, until its privatization in 1997. But even today, the content of our work has not really changed: we deliver extension and advisory services to farmers (both individually and in groups) on all aspects of soil and water management at the very local (square and cubic meters) to farm and regional level. Our clients nowadays include, besides farmers, water boards, regional authorities, local municipalities, national ministries and EU-bodies. In all our projects, extension and transfer of knowledge to farmers are central parts of our activities. Soil and water management Plants, be it agricultural crops or natural vegetation, need soil and water to grow and flourish. A healthy, well-managed soil delivers us food & fodder, regulates our water systems, sequesters carbon dioxide and delivers us nature, biodiversity and places to rest and recreate. We advise on soil profile improvement, drainage, tillage and crop rotation. We visit your farms and forests to improve local water management, water harvesting and irrigation systems. We match farm business plans with regional water policy ambitions and find key solutions to make both work. We offer training courses at all levels (from farm to university) to discuss soil and water management and improve food production and sustainable land use.
Right place, right time, right scale!
Aequator offers services at plot and at regional level. To optimize land use, to close natural circles at the lowest possible level (such as manure, biomass and water) and to mitigate climate change, we inventory and map soil qualities and land suitability of terrains (up to scales of 1:10,000), quantify water movements in the unsaturated zone (where roots grow), advice on local cooperation between land users (e.g. the Waterholding or ‘Waterhouderij’) to prevent drought or flooding losses and assess measures to improve groundwater quality. Social hydrology, modelling & GIS, precision agiculture and smart (big) data analysis are key components of our work.
