Agricultural production in the Netherlands has grown by 20 percent since 1995, but the use of fertilizers and fertilizers has actually fallen. This is reported by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) after an investigation into making agriculture more sustainable.
The amount of nitrogen supplied via fertilizer almost halved between 1995 and 2012 and then increased slightly again. A similar development was seen in the supply of nitrogen via animal manure. According to Statistics Netherlands, the slight increase in recent years is due to cows eating more concentrates.
Partly due to this extra concentrate, the milk production per cow has increased. In 1995, Dutch dairy farmers supplied an average of 6,300 kilograms of milk to dairies per cow, and in 2021 this was 8,700 kilograms per cow. Despite a shrinking livestock population, total production has increased as a result.
According to the government, nitrogen emissions from agriculture must be reduced further and halved by 2030. Johan Remkes, appointed by the cabinet as discussion leader with farmers about the nitrogen crisis, advised in his report last week What is possible that the 500 to 600 largest nitrogen emitters near vulnerable nature reserves must stop within a year. Most of them are large livestock farms.
Statistics Netherlands also looked at natural gas consumption in agriculture. Despite the increased production, this has remained more or less the same since 1995. Greenhouse horticulture consumes the most natural gas.