Farmers who want to stop threaten to be touched by the recent ruling of the Council of State about nitrogen emissions. The Council of State ruled in December that farmers, companies and builders who are going to do something new should apply for a new nitrogen permit.
“We are mapping whether this should be read or not,” says Minister Wiersma of Agriculture. “Because it cannot be the intention that as a farmer you will get into trouble if you want to stop. It is very annoying that farmers who have made a super -fiddled decision are now in uncertainty. That cannot be the intention.”
The stoppers scheme is primarily intended for the largest agricultural nitrogen outputs (peak loaders) and is seen in The Hague as one of the most effective solutions for the nitrogen problem.
The regulation was conceived by former Minister for Nature and Nitrogen Van der Wal, who called it a “wildly attractive arrangement”. With very favorable financial conditions, the government wanted to tempt as many farmers as possible, especially in the vicinity of nature reserves, to stop voluntarily. Forced buy -out of farmers was also not an option for the previous cabinet.
The problem now is that it has been agreed in the scheme that stopping farmers may still use 15 percent of the nitrogen space from their permit. That makes it possible for them, for example, to keep other animals instead of cows. Horses and sheep emit much less nitrogen than cows. Or a farmer can, for example, start a campsite or build apartments on the divested farm.
It seems that this has to apply for a new nature permit for this due to the ruling of the Council of State, while the farmers assumed that it wasn’t necessary. It is uncertain whether they can still get such a new permit. Too much nitrogen is emitted and the granting of permits is mainly examined whether nature suffers.