More ecologists should join in the lead

I have been watching field birds since 1989. Both in the Netherlands and abroad. I have seen larks, partridges, corn buntings, yellow wagtails and quails in all provinces and have made some attempts to show farmers with nature on farmland that you can achieve a lot of profit with adjustments in business management. 

In all those years I have sat at quite a few kitchen tables. You could call me a green gardener. Unlike many green people in my profession, I ride combines and mowers, I sometimes help with the harvest and I have consumed liters of coffee on the side seat of tractors with quite a bit of horsepower. More agroecologists should do riding on agricultural machinery. Discussions about, for example, predation in modern agricultural landscapes, the effectiveness or otherwise of field margins or wishful thinking partridge projects would then proceed differently.

Ride along
I want to talk to you about buffer strips without so much as an ounce of flour in the corners of my mouth. These are edges along ditches and waterways, intended as a zone with a buffering effect, to protect the waterway. When I was allowed to ride with the young arable farmer Peter Meedendorp in June 2023 while sowing his buffer strips in Westerwolde in Groningen, I afterwards wrote a piece about it for the Volkskrant. After that, I started paying (even) more attention to the many thousands of kilometers of buffer strips as they look today. Buffer strips have become de facto narrow field edges and in many cases also temporary. Sown again and again, sometimes annually. That is not what a buffer zone along a ditch or waterway was ever intended for.

Marginal benefit for biodiversity
The buffer zone has degenerated into a narrow field edge and we all know that narrow field edges in the Netherlands have hardly proven their effectiveness for biodiversity. In fact, you can argue with playful ease that in many cases they are a ecological trap are. Because there is always someone somewhere with a spyglass and/or butterfly net who claims the opposite, the myth persists that these kinds of 'field margins' would work. Yes, margins. Marginal, especially along fields with highly productive agricultural purposes.

The ecological return of narrow (and also wide) annual field margins is low, implementation often encounters problems (think of weeding with thistles and other species that are agriculturally less desirable) and the margins are just a line on the map that can be accounted for towards different governments organize. Farmers know it, the handful of field biologists who see it know it, and I think the civil service that has to enforce this bureaucratic circus and put it into rules should know it too. It is indeed possible to make buffer strips function better, both ecologically and in achieving the original goals (think of the Water Framework Directive). And they would cause less inconvenience to the practicing farmer.

Only for one year
That's how it is. The lion's share of the buffer strips in arable land are sown for one year. A year seems like a lot, but in practice many farmers choose to sow later in the season and the vegetation therefore only emerges late. There is often no question of good root penetration of the sown buffer strip mixture. When you, as a farmer, start looking for mixtures, you quickly become overwhelmed by the options. It is therefore no surprise that many farmers opt for cheap mixtures. But unfortunately cheap is expensive.

My advice would be to pay attention to two basic characteristics: a) go for a mix of clovers and grasses and b) pay attention to the degree of root penetration. Clovers and grasses may seem a bit meager when you see the colorful field edges throughout the country, but simplicity is often a key to success. Choose perennial mixtures with good root penetration. That is better for the soil and for the buffering effect. After all, the capture of fertilizers and any pesticide residues is not possible in a bare strip with a recently sown mixture.

In my opinion, it is not useful to saddle farmers who do not primarily have nature at heart with all kinds of unrealistic goals regarding natural values ​​in agricultural areas. The history of Agricultural Nature and Landscape Management (ANLB) clearly shows that it does not work that way. Primary agricultural production and biodiversity have become increasingly incompatible in recent decades. This also applies to buffer strips. It would be very nice if:

• Buffer strips will do what they have to do in relation to the WFD;
• The strips are not a burden and are a pleasure after proper development;
• Basic biodiversity can benefit from multi-year buffer strips instead of the ecological barrenness that it often is now;
• The strips may even – in a secondary way – help close agricultural cycles by allowing mixtures and management based on agricultural production;
• Stimulate technical innovation in the strips to increase their adaptability to agricultural land.

There is currently no research available that shows how effective buffer strips are in relation to my story above. That's why I'm making a move with this piece, I think there are variants conceivable that would make a farmer smile instead of walking around with a grumpy face. And thereby help basic biodiversity. Consider field bird species such as meadow pipit (breeding) and yellow wagtail (foraging).

Suppose we can come up with a concept in which a mixture is composed in such a way that, in addition to achieving biodiversity goals and the capture of fertilizers, it can also have an agricultural benefit (not allowed at the moment), then farmers can produce something that can be achieved at company level (or in my opinion). the region) can be used as fertilizer. Consider vegetable fertilizer based on clover-like plants so that a portion of nitrogen can be saved elsewhere.

There is no doubt that this requires technical innovations in addition to agro-ecological innovation. If we assume the minimum buffer of 3 meters, you soon enter the domain of water boards that also have machines driving around with minimum working widths. In contrast to water boards (which to this day have little idea of ​​large-scale ecological management), bright minds could also work towards techniques that will help both multi-year buffer strips and biodiversity.

How nice would it be to develop something smart at test companies (Lelystad, Valthermond, Nieuw Beerta, Colijnsplaat) instead of muddling through with a bureaucratic burden that really benefits no one and where no goal is achieved. I also know plenty of farmers who would like to participate in such a field experiment. And that starts with riding along on a tractor and taking a good note of everything you see.

This article is part of the content collaboration between Boerenbusiness en foodlog.

© 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.