Melanie Van Raaij, Katrien Weckx and Stijn Bossin from Boerenbond are telling a story about innovation in Belgium. About ten years ago, the company Biolectric entered the market with a highly innovative product: the pocket digester. A high-tech installation that turns manure into energy for the farmer to use. In addition, greenhouse gas emissions from manure storage can be reduced by up to 70%. This start-up was a pioneer in the market and the first farmers who showed an interest were also pioneers. We as advisors of Innovation Support supported the introduction of this pocket digester in Flanders very hard and because of this Biolectric could grow very fast. In the initial period, as many as 70 to 80 installations were sold at a price between € 75k and € 100k. This could be earned back in four years. But we could not have foreseen the risk that the farmers would run. Biolectric concluded energy contracts with the farmers, enabling them to buy power cheaply from themselves. The advice was mainly technical, but Biolectric lacked agricultural knowledge and a connection with the farm. For many a farmer the system required more maintenance and adjustment than supplier and customer initially had expected. The farmers did not deal with this and Biolectric could not follow, which lead to frustration in the beginning. Trust among farmers is very important. If a few are not satisfied, the rest will not want to continue either. In time, an Operational Group of farmers – Pocketboer (Pocket farmer) would be created who could take a more critical stance towards Biolectric and who could also learn from each other. As advisers, we asked ourselves the question: should an advisory organisation be allowed to promote a highly innovative product so extensively, or should we have done more assessment ourselves first? But innovation advice is simply risky, because it comes from a kind of idealism: you want the sector to move forward. You learn along the way and pioneers know that. It was a very innovative story of trial and error. To this day, the Operational Group still meets and many farmers now process their manure to energy with an improved version of the pocket digester. Biolectric is by far the largest manufactuer of this kind of digester in Europe.

This story is part of the AgriLink project results’ dissemination plan. https://www.agrilink2020.eu

For more Digital Stories, click here.