Agricultural collective will work on nitrogen plan

Farmers Defense Force (FDF) plans to present an Agricultural Collective next week, which will work on a sector-wide plan to achieve nitrogen reduction with financial compensation. According to the organization, this collective of agriculture minister Carola Schouten can take the lead here. 

Farmers Defense Force made the announcement in a statement. The organization already made it clear last week to have reached an agreementt with a large part of the Dutch farmers' advocates to act jointly in the nitrogen dossier. This association has been given the temporary name Agricultural Collective. According to FDF, the collective consists of only 'representatives of the farmer and for the farmer' and will have an independent chairman. FDF will announce who this will be later.

Public plan
The Agricultural Collective in formation has convened a meeting for next week in which the definitive composition of the organization will be announced. FDF says it is taking the lead in this and "striving for a constructive club with the largest possible following." The organization says that the collective's plan will be made public and submitted to Minister Schouten.

FDF warns the minister in advance that it will not accept 'cherry picking' from the nitrogen plan in the making. In other words, only removes those elements that suit her. 'Clear agreements must be made about the implementation of the plan.' It is striking that FDF declares that the Agricultural Collective in formation may take the lead from Schouten. This means that LTO Nederland is no longer the first discussion partner in this file. According to the previous statement from FDF, various sections of LTO also participate in the Agricultural Collective.

More than just nitrogen
Whether the Agricultural Collective will also remain active as a federation of joint representatives after the nitrogen dossier is an interesting question in that regard. In the consultation that Farmers Defense Force had with Minister Schouten last Wednesday (30 October), other points were also discussed, such as extra compensation for mink farmers and the crop protection products policy. 

It is not clear whether LTO Dairy Farming and NAJK are completely sidelined or whether they will also play a role in the Agricultural Collective. The Dutch dairy sector, including these two farmers' organisations, was planning to make its own proposal to reduce nitrogen last week, but withdrew it. after major protest from farmers and other advocates again in. The so-called Ammonia Taskforce that the chain parties had set up for this purpose, immediately fell apart due to disagreements.

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