Stop bonus for the farmer to the nature reserve, otherwise stricter environmental requirements

• Lars Geerts

  Political journalist

• Anke Truijen

  political journalist

The cabinet wants a bonus stop for farmers who emit a lot of nitrogen near nature reserves. From April next year, thousands of farmers will receive an offer. They can innovate, move or stop. If a farmer quits, he gets 120 percent of his farm’s value.

The most concerned ministers discussed it this morning. Farmers are not required to participate in the scheme, but if they do they will have to deal with significantly stricter environmental requirements and it will be much more difficult to continue.

The cabinet wants to announce final plans on Friday. This must also include a nitrogen tax for all companies. Polluting factories will therefore have to pay heavily for their nitrogen emissions. The system is comparable to the levy that companies pay for CO2 emissions.

These measures are a response to the advice of nitrogen ombudsman Johan Remkes and the recent ruling by the State Council that it refused to work with building exemptions.

Stricter environmental requirements in the vicinity of Natura 2000 areas are a big stick with which the cabinet hopes to entice as many farmers as possible into joining the voluntary scheme.

The proposals of the most involved ministers will be discussed in the next few days in the parliamentary parties of the government parties. They can still push for changes.

This government approach should eventually also lead to the legalization of PAS reporting. This too was a condition set by Remkes and adopted by the cabinet.

The hope is that so many farms choose to close that they free up enough nitrogen space to help PAS reporters. Then they could get a permit.

PAS notifiers are companies that have reported to the government for low nitrogen precipitation activities for the Nitrogen Approach Program (PAS). They didn’t need to apply for a permit. But since the judge ruled out the PAS, those farmers are now without permits and at risk of hefty fines.

The cabinet has struggled with the nitrogen approach for years. In 2019, the highest court rejected the government’s nitrogen policy. Since then, the cabinet and provinces have repeatedly backed out of the courts when it came to their approach to nitrogen.

In recent years, farmers have regularly protested the nitrogen approach. Tensions between farmers and the cabinet escalated to such an extent this summer that Johan Remkes was asked to mediate between all sides. This led to the advice of him “What is possible”.

Agriculture Minister Piet Adema wants to conclude an agriculture deal with the sector early next year. He should clarify what the agricultural sector in the Netherlands should look like in the future.

It also wants to offer the perspective that, according to the industry, was missing in previous plans. He will discuss this further in his letter on Friday. He will also invite party chains, such as supermarkets and animal feed producers, to contribute to a better income model for the farmer.