Nitrogen deputy Erik Ronnes is facing the difficult task of guiding Brabant through the nitrogen crisis. On July 1, 2023, the province must come up with a plan on how to curb this crisis. An immense task in a tight time frame. Part 2 of the conversation with the man all farmers have pinned their hopes on.
That young farmers have sleepless nights eats away at him. The fact that Minister Christianne van der Wal has more or less given the provinces a free hand to achieve the nitrogen reduction of 50 percent is both a curse and a blessing. A blessing, because you can really try to get the best out of it. A curse because you can never do it right for everyone. Yet everything is aimed at a better, more sustainable and healthier future for nature and livestock farming.
“Only when you can make a good calculation, do you make that choice.”
Making the choice to set up your company differently has quite a few consequences, Ronnes acknowledges. That is why he finds it very painful that the government is failing in many areas. A good price for a healthy product is one of them. “You only make that choice if you can do a good calculation of what switching yields.” His colleague Elies Lemkes (Agriculture) is doing what she can and is holding many talks with suppliers and customers, but the decisiveness has to come from The Hague.
Brabant has many farmers who have already indicated that they eventually want to stop voluntarily. A survey conducted by the province shows that there are about 1200 farms. Farmers who have no successor, farmers who do not want to invest again in an expensive housing system. According to Ronnes, there are possibilities there. “It gives room to move companies, for example. It makes the space for that complicated puzzle a bit bigger,” he says. Space that can really make a difference in those complicated conversations.
“The cabinet really needs to help with financing.”
The path taken is the right one, Ronnes thinks. “We already started the barn adjustments in 2018. We are already reaping the benefits. So we are making more progress than other provinces. But here too we are now running into limits.” Ronnes refers, among other things, to the problems farmers have with the bank. The bank does not want to provide financing to farmers who now want to build a low-emission barn because of the uncertain future. “The government really needs to help with that.”
The minister also confirms that Brabant is on the right track. She also wants to insist on better housing systems in other provinces, such as in Brabant. Although you can’t make it with innovation alone, Ronnes acknowledges. “Barn systems, stoppers, extensification, electrification. We are also in talks with Belgium to see how we can make a profit there. 60 percent of the nitrogen in the Brabantse Wal, for example, comes from Belgium.”
“It is totally unrealistic for every farmer to have clarity.”
It’s the time frame that pinches. For example, we will only know what the actual state of nature in Brabant is at the end of the year, when the nature target analyzes have been completed. And in October there will be additional tasks in the field of water quality and climate. “There is a plan on July 1, 2023, because we have all hands on deck, but it is totally unrealistic for every farmer to have clarity. But turn it around. How do they view their own future? expect them to say what their future will look like in three months?”
The fear of expropriation exists among the peasants. Something Ronnes wants to be very careful about. He chooses his words carefully. “We don’t want it and I am convinced that the approach as we have it in Brabant offers real prospects. It is much too early to think about expropriation, there is still so much possible. But I cannot translate it into never .”
“It is my responsibility to keep Brabant manageable.”
Ronnes also feels that the voters of the CDA are turning their backs on the party en masse. And that hurts. Yet he persists, out of conviction. “I was brought from The Hague to Brabant when things went very badly here in the province with the CDA (2019). It is my responsibility to keep Brabant manageable, with perspective for the farmers. The approach we have in Brabant has that. perspective. I really think so.”
Society is hardening and parties are increasingly diametrically opposed to each other. Also in Brabant. “The task is enormous. That attitude, left against right, really doesn’t bring us any closer to a solution. We need everyone to work on that solution and I’m happy to be a part of that.”
Read the first part of the conversation with Deputy Erik Ronnes here.