Nitrogen reduction target proving controversial for farmers at Dutch election

In a country of less than 18 million people and more than 116 million livestock, agriculture reigns supreme.

Transcript

00:00 Less than 18 million people and more than 116 million livestock like chicken, pig and

00:07 cattle. The Netherlands is the second largest exporter of agricultural products in the world

00:12 and half of its land is devoted to agriculture, an agri-food superpower despite its tiny size.

00:19 Which could turn into a problem for emissions, including nitrogen, a chemical element that

00:25 in high concentrations is dangerous for nature and water quality. Almost all human activities

00:30 produce it but in the Netherlands agriculture is the biggest culprit responsible for 50%

00:35 of all nitrogen emissions.

00:39 Basically there in the Netherlands there are two big reasons why we have a nitrogen problem.

00:44 On the first hand it's, we are a very densely populated area and we have the most dense

00:50 livestock concentration in Europe. And on the other hand the Netherlands has taken a

00:56 rather strict interpretation of European Habitats Directive which stipulates that for every new

01:03 kind of activity we have to realize nitrogen reduction elsewhere.

01:10 The previous government set a goal of halving its emissions by 2030. For this farmers are

01:15 required to reduce their nitrogen footprint or sell their properties to the Dutch state

01:19 which put in place a voluntary buyout scheme with a budget of 8 billion euros. But for

01:24 now it's not been very popular explains Jan Arijcurrivar who owns 115 cows on his 90 hectare

01:30 property in South Holland. He produces 100 million liters of milk per year in an almost

01:36 100% organic way and he believes the government should focus more on boosting innovation rather

01:41 than reducing the size of farms.

01:43 But a lot of farmers are worried because it's not clear for them what they need to do on

01:48 their farm to meet the demands of the government. I think there are also possibilities to reduce

01:54 emissions for dairy farmers as well if you can help them with the funding to reduce that

01:59 with technological innovations. We do not have that type of measurements yet and the

02:05 other thing would be that the government helps to make your farm more extensive. So to help

02:10 for instance with the availability of land.

02:13 But the issue has turned controversial ahead of the country's elections next week. While

02:17 farmers are pushing back against the current provisions some parties and environmental

02:21 associations want even more. They're asking for mandatory buyouts instead of voluntary

02:26 ones halving emissions by 2030 and stricter targets on livestock reduction.

02:33 We demand that the government helps farmers make the transition to ecological farming

02:37 with 70% fewer animals in 2030 and 80% fewer in 2050 and actually helps farmers or helps

02:44 you know the market set up a system in such a way that the farmer also has a good income

02:49 you know producing like food for humans instead of a lot of food for animals.

02:57 The concerns of environmentalists and farmers will probably be heard in the vote on 22 November

03:02 and are destined to influence the composition of the new Dutch parliament.

03:08 Vincenzo Genovese, Euronews, Laia.

03:11 [Whoosh]