As part of the state visit of Singapore, Queen Máxima visited the greenhouses of the Horticultural Centre in Bleiswijk together with President Halimah Yacob of Singapore yesterday.
Photo: Twitter Royalty Tweets
The visit was focused on sustainable (city) agriculture. Ben Geerlings, international communication adviser of WUR, present at the visit: "Singapore is, as a city state, one large urban farming area. The president was very interested in the knowledge that WUR has to offer in this field, and I think there will be more cooperation in the future."
After a welcoming word by Louise Fresco, Máxima, President Halimah Yacob, and her husband Mohamed Abdullah Alhabshee went into the greenhouses, where they were explained about different innovations in horticulture. They visited a tulip greenhouse, where scientists research how they can grow tulips year round in a sustainable manner, a tropical greenhouse with papayas for example, vanilla and passion fruit. They also looked at the tomato greenhouse, where Ernst van den Ende, director Plant Sciences Group, explained about the various innovations in the field of tomato cultivation. There were also three (of the five) WUR students from Singapore to talk to the President and Máxima.
During the visit, a number of cooperation agreements were signed, such as between Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and WUR. This cooperation applies for example to food science studies, which had already started in 2014.
Source: Resource