Like the Netherlands, there is also work to be done in Flanders to comply with the European Nitrates Directive. The Belgian newspaper De Tijd was given access to the proposals of the Flemish 7th Manure Action Plan (MAP7) - the equivalent of the Dutch 7th Nitrates Directive action program - and they appear to go very far. Flemish farmers' organizations and the potato processing industry reacted with shock to the proposals. Agriculture is effectively being killed, according to the critics.
Minister Zuhal Demir's plans are very far-reaching for Flemish agriculture. For example, there must be a cultivation-free zone of 6 meters along all waterways and canals, manure standards will be reduced by 15% and there will be a complete fertilization ban from 2024 August from 1. De Tijd asked fertilization expert Thijs Vanden Nest what the plans mean for Flemish agriculture. According to him, the cultivation-free zone means that up to 25.000 hectares of expensive and scarce land will be taken out of production. The farmers' association expects that sharply lowering fertilizer standards and shortening the spreading period will have major consequences for crop yields. The minister assumes a maximum yield reduction of 3%, but according to the association, this is based on one-year studies and the long-term effect is completely ignored. This means that the land is being overexploited, causing yields to decline much further over time.
Another tricky point is that Flanders is divided into two area types: blue and purple, whereby the purple areas must take extra measures to improve water quality. These include stricter fertilizer standards and a ban on the cultivation of potatoes and vegetables harvested after September 1. The majority of potatoes are harvested after September 1, according to Vanden Nest. This therefore has major consequences for potato cultivation. The measure would not only be the death knell for potato and vegetable cultivation in Flanders, but also for the entire agri-food complex associated with it, according to the farmers' association.
Nuclear bomb
"We have learned, through an oral explanation, with astonishment, of the measures within the framework of MAP7 that Minister Demir's office tested with the European Commission. These measures were taken by the minister without prior consultation or involvement of any party in the government, parliament or the stakeholders," the Boerenbond, the General Farmers' Syndicate, young ABS and Groene Kring wrote in a joint statement. The leader of Belgapom, the interest group for the potato processing industry, goes one step further: "We were already preparing because we thought a bomb was coming. It turned out to be an atomic bomb," said Christophe Vermeulen, CEO of Belgapom, in the VRT program The seventh day. "This plan will make 80% of potato cultivation in Flanders impossible. This amounts to digging to death an enormously successful industry, including the chip culture in our country. I am a big fan of decisive politics. I understand what she wants to do and understand that she wants to go for better water quality. But there is a difference between being bold and being reckless."
In the meantime, Demir is especially angry about the fact that the plans have been leaked. In the current affairs program De seventh day she calls it 'an organized attack with the intention of torpedoing the plans and scaring people'. Demir says he is 'open to all amendments, as long as we can achieve the objective'.