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CAP registration eased, payment later
With great delay, the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality has reached an agreement with the European Commission on the National Strategic Plan. Its formation took almost a year. There are no major changes. Acting Minister of Agriculture Carola Schouten informs the House that it will be more flexible if it turns out that entrepreneurs cannot meet the conditions because, for example, they have already sown a crop.
The National Strategic Plan that was presented to the House of Representatives by Minister Schouten today, 3 October, has a total of 639 pages. The plan is about the implementation of the new common agricultural policy (CAP) for the period 2023 to 2027. The plan was met by the parties involved for almost a year and heavily negotiated in Brussels. That caused great uncertainty for a long time. Especially because the changes have a major impact on farms in the Netherlands. Advocates therefore called for 2023 to be designated as a transition year. The Ministry of LNV does not agree with this, but it does promise relaxation where applicable.
The talks between the Netherlands and the European Commission concluded on 30 September. A formal approval by the European Commission is expected in six to eight weeks. In a Letter to Parliament Minister Schouten already provides information about the most important changes in the NSP.
Registration date relaxed
The introduction of the new CAP on 1 January is a major undertaking. Also for example for RVO, because of the new buffer strips. The service thinks it will take until February to adapt the ICT to this. Registration for the basic payment and eco-scheme will be extended once from 1 March to 15 May inclusive via the Combined Statement. The registration time for Agricultural Nature and Landscape Management (ANLb) will also be extended. This depends on the registrations for the eco-scheme. No decision has yet been taken on this by the provinces and collectives. A new simulation tool that helps entrepreneurs to assess their situation within the new CAP – which is currently insufficiently effective – is being prepared. This also applies to the application module. These modules are not expected before early February 2023. Because arable farmers cannot wait that long, an attempt is made to provide more information via the RVO website as soon as possible.
Payment also later
Because the registration dates are moved backwards, this means that some of the CAP payments are also made later. RVO can only check applications later, which means that the deadline of 95% payments in December is not guaranteed.
GAEC 7 (mandatory crop rotation) and GAEC 8 (leaving 4% arable land non-productive) will be postponed in 2023 due to the war in Ukraine. This derogation does not apply to the eco-schemes and ANLb. To this end, a one-off adjustment will be made to the requirements so that farmers can participate in the coming year and gain experience with the schemes. Companies that have already established their construction plan can still participate in this way. 2023 is seen as a learning year for the basic income as well as the eco-scheme and the ANLb. During the transition year, the government will monitor what went well and what did not. Sanctions are more flexible. Schouten relies on the entrepreneurs for this.
Fund transfer
The new CAP is much more focused on preserving and restoring nature, the environment and biodiversity and much less on direct support to farmers. That is why CAP funds are gradually being transferred from the first pillar (income support) to the second pillar. This percentage will rise to 30% in 2027. Billions will be released from various funds over the next five years to realize this transition.
Most of the time was spent discussing the 'Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC's)'. To this end, the EC applies basic European legislation to which each Member State may make its own minor amendments. The Netherlands has chosen to align the requirements where possible with the 7e Action program Nitrates Directive. One of the hot topics among the GAECs is the construction of buffer strips along waterways. The Netherlands chooses to apply a requirement that exceeds the statutory minimum. This is five meters along vulnerable waterways and three meters for other ditches (instead of the required two metres). There are exceptions for narrow plots. A buffer strip of one meter applies along dry ditches. These conditions are equivalent to the 7e Action program.
More ground cover
The requirements for a minimum ground cover have also been tightened. For heavy clay soil, 80% of the arable land must be covered between 1 August and 1 November. This can be done by sowing a green manure or another crop or by leaving crop residues on the land. In the compulsory crop rotation, an exception is made to the grain cultivation plans in the Oldambt. In return, these companies must apply crop diversification, just as is already in force in the current CAP. For the other arable land, the rule that a new crop must be grown every year has been relaxed. At least one third of the crop plan must be rotated annually (with a different crop grown every fourth year). This rotation also applies to farms with more than three quarters of grassland.
Organic farms are exempt from the rotation rule, although this will probably hardly cause any problems in practice, given the broad construction plans on organic farms. Organic companies are automatically assigned the status 'gold'. The EC calls this 'green by definition'. The NSP expresses the ambition to have at least 2027% of the agricultural area organic by 6. That's almost doubling the previous plan. At the moment, that percentage is 4%. To make it more attractive to switch, these companies will already be awarded the highest gold CAP status during the transition period.
One-off amount for young farmer
Under the current CAP, young farmers received an extra payment on top of the standard CAP. This top-up will not be renewed. If the five-year period has not yet ended, it will continue to exist. This extra payment will be replaced by a setting up aid for young entrepreneurs. This amounts to a one-off €25.000, for which they must have control over the company and draw up a sustainability plan.
There are also numerous relatively modest changes to NSP. For example, fiber crops such as flax and hemp are included as an eco-scheme and more money is made available for animal welfare. 5% of the budget goes to this. A pilot should explore whether an animal-related eco-regulation improves animal welfare.
Working with the new CAP does not make it any easier for farmers. For example, work is being done on a landscape map that includes landscape elements that border on agricultural parcels. Farmers can make use of this within the eco-scheme or they can be included in the basic payment. It takes a lot of time to work with that card. In the letter to parliament, Schouten speaks of 14 hours of extra work for an average company, which can go up to 27 hours for many plots.
Niels van der Boom
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