News item | 21-04-2022 | 13:58
The introduction of an Accountable Substances Balance (ASB) for dairy farming offers – in the long term – options for managing day-to-day business operations, such as the composition of livestock feed, grazing and the management of grassland. An ASB is currently not the appropriate tool for managing larger tasks, such as the type of barn that the farmer builds or the number of animals he has.
This is apparent from the exploration carried out by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) into the possibilities and impossibilities of an ASB. Minister Staghouwer shared the results of this with the House of Representatives today.
Accountable Fabric Balance
There is broad support, both in politics and the agricultural sector, for focusing more on goals and less on means within agricultural and environmental policy: farmers often know best how to achieve predetermined goals on their own farm.
This does require a method to be able to monitor whether goals are actually being achieved. An Accountable Substances Balance is often mentioned and means that the so-called substance flows from and to the farm are monitored. Flows to the farm are, for example, fertilizer and concentrate, flows from the farm are, for example, milk and meat. Based on this data, it can be determined whether or not the farmer achieves the environmental performance and the settlement is made.
Investigations: no less regulation
The exploration carried out involved a total of three studies and focused on the tasks of manure, nitrogen and climate for dairy farming. An ASB is possible for light regulation, but not for large tasks, such as expensive barn adaptations or maximum numbers of animals to be kept. There appear to be opportunities for light regulation in ammonia and/or climate policy. Manure legislation is largely based on European rules that cannot be abolished or converted to a Dutch system. In that case, according to the researchers, in the manure policy, an ASB would not lead to a reduction in regulations or more entrepreneurial freedom, but would rather come on top of existing regulations and thus create additional administrative burdens.
In response to the results, the ministry will consult with the agricultural sector about the results and the possible follow-up steps. An important outcome is that improving data quality makes sense to make an ASB more accurate and fair. This is of extra importance because techniques are not yet sufficiently developed to measure emissions accurately enough at company level. Its development is therefore of great importance and will therefore certainly be continued.