Brabant supplements subsidy pot for quitters

The province of Noord-Brabant is making €400.000 available for VABimpuls. That is the pot that the stopping (and the stopped livestock farmers) can tap into to obtain advice on how to deal with the vacant agricultural buildings, the so-called VAB locations.

At an earlier stage, € 250.000 had already been provided, but that money has run out. "Repurposing the VAB locations is a challenging project, which is why the province has decided to make an additional €400.000 available," said Peer Verkuilen, project leader of VABimpulse, know.

500 stop requests
Livestock farmers can spend this amount via vouchers with independent advisors for support and guidance in the 'VAB trajectory'. The money is probably good to provide about 100 livestock farmers with information. Livestock farmers have until 9 December to report to the 'counter'.

Research by Alterra shows that up to 2030 approximately 4.500 farms will stop, accounting for 8,6 million m² agricultural buildings. Many of these are located in North Brabant. The province has received approximately 500 applications for stopping stoppers, of which about 400 are currently being processed. According to Verkuilen, this means that only a limited part is eligible for VABimpuls.

Stalling is going a little better
One possibility for stoppers in this province is park† This means that a stopper transfers stable meters to a stayer who wants to grow. For every 100 m² new barn must (within the same area) 110 m² to be cleaned up in stables.

However, due to its complexity, this process started slowly. According to Verkuilen, things are going slightly better now, but parking is probably only a solution in a limited number of situations. Another solution is to repurpose a 'stopping shed', for example for caravan storage or other activities.

Wouter Job

Wouter Baan is editor-in-chief of Boerenbusiness. He also focuses on dairy, pig and meat markets. He also follows (business) developments within agribusiness and interviews CEOs and policymakers.

w.baan@boerenbusiness. Nl

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