Communication about LNV Community 'unhappy'

The call from the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) to farmers to register for the LNV Community has caused unrest. The Producers Organization Pigs (POV) and Farmers Defense Force (FDF) were among others critical. They believe that the ministry is sidelining the interest groups and wants to validate the policy through the farmers.

However, the fork is slightly different in the stem, learns through inquiry Boerenbusiness† The community is not new, but it has been around for 2 years. The ministry calls the LNV Community "the online think tank of the Ministry of LNV. It is a closed online research platform where 200 arable farmers, horticulturists and livestock farmers talk to each other about agricultural policy". The idea is to use the information that comes from these discussions to test proposals and recommendations and make them more in line with practice.

Not new
The LNV Community was established in 2019, initially as a pilot project with 150 livestock farmers. In 2020, the LNV Community will be expanded to include arable farmers and horticulturists and the number of participants has grown to 199 farmers.

Officials (especially those in Brussels) regularly come up with proposals and guidelines that are difficult to translate into daily practice on the farm, according to sources - who wish to remain anonymous - within and around the ministry. Qualitative research is carried out within the LNV Community by a market research agency. This gives an indication of how certain proposals fall within the sector and whether they are comprehensible and practicable, for example. The results are certainly not applicable 1-on-1 to the entire target group. To keep a fresh look and to prevent tunnel vision, the participants are regularly replaced.

Sounding board group
The recent communication about the LNV community is called 'unfortunate' by the sources. It is a sounding board group/panel, nothing more and nothing less. The sources emphasize that the LNV Community is certainly not a replacement for the interest groups. It is an additional instrument that is used to enter into discussions with individual farmers and to obtain input, for example about what they encounter, something that LTO, for example, regularly asks for.

Jurphaas Lugtenburg

He is a market specialist in grains and other agricultural commodities at DCA Market Intelligence. He also focuses on onions, potatoes, and roughage. Jurphaas also runs an arable farm in Voorne-Putten (South Holland).

j.lugtenburg @boerenbusiness. Nl

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.