Dutch present long-awaited measures to buy out largest nitrogen polluters

The Dutch government presented its long-awaited efforts to entice the country’s largest nitrogen polluters in the agricultural sector to sell their farms, allowing about 3,000 farmers near nitrogen-sensitive nature reserves to be eligible to receive compensation if they give up their business.

Farmers can verify whether they are eligible for the programme on a website launched on Monday.

“From today, entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to get started within the ‘peak polluters’ approach. Together with their community, they can think about the future of their business,” said Nature and Nitrogen Policy Minister Christianne Van der Wal (VVD/Renew), who was cited by NOS.

“It has never been so attractive in a financial sense, it is really a one-off, and we hope to gain momentum with it,” she added.

The buy-out scheme had previously been shrouded in uncertainty as the European Commission cited concerns about their viability with regard to the bloc’s state aid regulations before ultimately greenlighting them last month.

A case manager will aid farmers who agree to participate in the programme to determine whether they should relocate, transition to more innovative and sustainable farming methods or stop farming – in which case the government will buy them out.

However, as the former two methods still need to be greenlighted by the EU, farmers can currently only choose the option of being bought out.

Farmers who agree to be bought out will receive a payment equaling 120% of their businesses’ value, with farms emitting at least 2,500 mol of nitrogen annually “qualifying” for the measure.

The bulk of eligible farmers – roughly 60% – is from Gelderland, a province where the agrarian protest party BoerBurgerBeweging (BBB) recently entered the provincial government.

The party, which made headlines in March when it gained the most votes of any single party during the Dutch regional elections, remains sceptical vis-à-vis the new measures.

“BBB does find it unfortunate that termination schemes are being opened up much earlier than those where the preservation of farms and thus food production is guaranteed. As far as we are concerned, safeguarding food production in our country should be the top priority,” the party stated in a press release.

“Selling a farm does not make farmers millionaires overnight. Those who shout that have no awareness of the number of loans and mortgages resting on farms and have no realistic picture of entrepreneurship,” it added.

Farmers can apply for the programme until April of next year.

(Benedikt Stöckl | EURACTIV.com)

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