Rabobank - past and present
Rabobank in the 1950s -
agribusiness booms
Better safe
than sorry
SECRET ENOUGH
SECURITY
Issue 20/August 23,1993
Following a difficult post-war period, agriculture in the Nether-
lands flowered in the 1950s, paving the way for the country's
later development into one of the world's top exporters of agri-
produce.
The Netherlands recovered re-
markably quickly trom the de-
vastation of the Second World
War. By the mid-1950s, an in-
dustrial boom was well under
way, which in retrospect would
prove very good news for Dutch
agriculture. Until the war, farms
had been small, family affairs
with little mechanization. But as
increasing numbers of agricul-
tural workers left the land to
find employment in the new in
dustries growing up in the ur-
ban areas, farmers were oblig-
ed to re-examine their position.
In 1947, no less than 19.3
percent of the Dutch working
population was involved in agri
culture; by 1960 this percen
tage had been halved.
If farming was to remain a
healthy sector in the Dutch
economy, radical measures
were required. Support from
government for modernization
and mechanization came at this
crucial period. But little would
have been achieved without the
farmers' credit banks. Post-war
currency reforms had generated
immense savings reserves and
the farmers' credit banks were
major recipients of these new
funds. The number of savings
accounts with these banks rose
from 1.7 million in 1958 to 4
million in 1967, and this on a
population of only 12.7 million.
With average savings at around
NLG 2,000 per account, the far
mers' cooperative banks were
able to provide extensive credit
facilities, not only to the agri-
sector, but also to
other industries and
to home owners.
But backto agribus
iness. Although it
sounds rather a
cliché, the Dutch
have always been
adaptable and Cre
ative when it comes
to land, and espec-
ially water, manage
ment. This ability
stood them in good stead as
declining numbers of workers
on the land meant more had to
be achieved by less people.
The solution was, of course,
mechanization. But the Dutch
have turned the basic principle
of using machines in agriculture
into an art form, with finance
from the farmers' credit banks.
In 1957, the two central
cooperative banks (in Utrecht
and Eindhoven) provided a com-
bined total credit of almost NLG
1 billion to primary producers
and agricultural cooperatives.
By 1967, this figure had risen
to almost NLG 3 billion. How
was the money spent? As the
Netherlands is a very small
country in physical terms, the
policy that gained currency in
in Holland, yet the intense
glass-cultivation introduced in
the late 1950s revolutionized
not only the vegetable and
flower-growing industries at
home, but went on to become a
major export industry in its own
right. In 1960, glass cultivation
represented 7 percent of Dutch
agricultural production cap-
acity; by 1980 this figure had
risen to 16 percent. Although
'open-air' vegetable growing re-
mained important in Holland,
the 1950s and 1960s was to
make the best possible and
most productive use of the
limited space available. In de-
veloping the intensive farming
now the norm in the Nether
lands, a level of flexibility was
required in what was essential-
ly a very conservative sector.
In hindsight, it is almost as
though Dutch farmers defined
what they did best and sub-
sequently went on to do it better.
Horticulture had always been
an inherent part of agriculture
and the early 1970s were diffi
cult for fruit-growers through
increased competition from
French and Italian farmers, the
Dutch responded with specializ-
ation. 'Designer' fruit, veget-
ables and flowers became the
Netherlands' visiting cards and
fastidious consumers world-
wide welcomed the perfectly
shaped, uniform products
bearing the label 'Made in Hol
land'. But there were other areas
in which the Dutch agrisector ex-
celled - keep watching this space.
As computers increasingly
become part of our working
life, the need for safeguarding
the information they contain
has become a major priority.
Rabobank has recentiy launch-
ed a security drive to make
users more aware of the im-
portance of passwords.
'We've all become used to
using passwords,' says Philip
van Dok of the bank's computer
policy department, 'but how
many of us really consider their
importance? All of the entries
made using your specific pass
word are, in fact, your respons-
ibility. If you give someone your
password, it is like giving them
signed cheques or signing a
letter you have never read.'
An international poster cam-
paign has been launched to
press home the need for com
puter security. 'The main pro-
blem is not that people aren't
IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY
careful with their passwords,
but that they tend to use simple
ones that are easy to remem-
ber,' says Van Dok. 'You'll find
people using the make
of their car, or their part-
ner's name, and com
puter hackers keep
whole lists of often-used
passwords. That's how
they get into systems.'
What the computer poli
cy department would
like to see is Rabobank-
ers using safer pass
words. Says Van Dok: 'A
good password has a
minimum length which
makes it harder to
guess or try out. The
more basic figures/let-
ters you use, the more
combinations are pos
sible. But here again,
there's a problem in that
the longer your password
combination is, the more difficult
it becomes to remember it. We
suggest using memory aids - not
writing it down in your desk
diary.'
One successful way to remem
ber your password is using the
reversal principle or the pre-
vious letter trick. Forexample, if
your password is tulips, it would
become spilut using the rever
sal, or stkhor in the previous
letter method. However, the
best option remains a combi
nation of letters and figures as
the computations are immense,
and the chances of hitting on
your particular password are
therefore very small.
Security campaign posters are
being sent to all foreign offices.
If you have not received one or
require more information, con
tact the computer policy
department in Eindhoven on
+31 40 346266.
