There was no shortage of frustrations during the round table discussion in the House of Representatives. Ten regional area directors tell the parliamentary committee on agriculture what they encounter when implementing the national nitrogen policy. One of those obstacles is a lack of money: there are plenty of farms for sale on the free market, but provinces have too little budget to purchase them. This is only possible through national purchase schemes in which few farmers show interest.
As a result, opportunities for the government are lost, says Henk Jonkers, area director for the province of Overijssel. Such farms are now sometimes purchased by speculators. They can benefit from the nitrogen crisis by later selling the farm to the government at a profit. ‘Or fellow farmers buy the farm because they see that there is unused nitrogen space in the permit that they can then fill up.’
Unused allowances
Jonkers refers to the fact that many nature permits of livestock farmers contain more nitrogen emission rights than the farmer uses. Those unused emission allowances are sold with the farm, allowing the purchasing farmer to expand his herd. Every farm for sale that does not come into the hands of the government is a missed opportunity for nitrogen reduction.
The area directors have been working for years to reconcile ambitious climate and environmental objectives at a local level with the interests of residents and farmers. The House wants to know how they are doing, because the cabinet wants to achieve national nitrogen emissions mainly through such ‘area processes’. The coalition hopes that the nitrogen approach will gain support if local stakeholders are given a lot of say.
The experts by experience complain to the MPs that they have to miss many opportunities. Land purchases are crucial, because many farmers do not want to end their business until they can continue farming elsewhere. The provinces need exchange land to be able to move a livestock farm close to a nature reserve. Lenneke Büller, area director in Friesland, sees that a lot of vacant agricultural land in her region is being bought up by farmers from outside the region. According to her, they only use the soil to spread manure. Thanks to that extra manure dumping space, they can keep more animals. This makes an increase in scale possible, exactly the opposite of what the national nitrogen policy aims for.
Preferential right
Büller therefore believes that the provinces or the national government should establish a pre-emptive right on agricultural plots for sale. This means that the farmer is obliged to first offer his land to the government. Other interested parties will only get a chance if the government does not make use of its pre-emption right. Jonkers also says that the government is ‘stealing around the bush’ in this regard. The area director of the Gelderse Vallei, Jan Pieter van der Schans: ‘I think it would be best to have land purchases handled through the province. That prevents the regional government from being priced out of the market by a party with much more money.’ Gelderland is not happy that Rijkswaterstaat and Schiphol are purchasing farms in the province for nitrogen space for highways and aviation, while Gelderland itself desperately needs that space.
All area directors agree on one thing: the timeline that the cabinet has in mind is not very realistic. Minister Van der Wal (Nature and Nitrogen) wants to involve all stakeholders in each area. The area directors support this approach, but experience that it takes a lot of time to get everyone on the same page. The fact that all provinces must submit detailed area plans before 1 July 2023, as Van der Wal demands, is hardly realistic, they say. Henk Kosters from Drenthe: ‘That’s tight, tight, tight.’