No postponement granted
Growers with catch crops in trouble due to rain
The wet weather has prevented farmers from sowing a catch crop in time. LTO Nederland advocates a general postponement, but the Ministry of Economic Affairs offers no room for this. The catch crops must be in the ground before 1 October.
From Noord-Holland, Flevoland and the northern clay area, LTO gets to speak to arable farmers who are unable to sow catch crops in time due to the wet weather. In ecological focus areas, they must be sown before 1 October, in order to comply with the greening obligation of the CAP. Due to the wet weather, harvesting is not always possible, which means that plots are not empty in time.
Make force majeure known
The Ministry of Economic Affairs has rejected LTO's request for a general postponement. It is not possible to amend European regulations at this stage, it says. Entrepreneurs who cannot sow in time must individually force majeure form complete on the website of the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO.nl). However, this does not guarantee whether the later sowing date will also be accepted.
In 2015, wet weather also threw a spanner in the works. At that time, the European Commission did agree to an extension of the period in which catch crops could be sown for greening.
Control with satellite
De Dutch Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) announced that it would check catch crops for the first time this year using satellite data. This mainly concerns plots of maize on sandy and loess soil.
The satellite data is used to look at the biomass on the plot, in order to determine when it was harvested and whether a catch crop is growing. The catch crops must remain on the plot until 1 February.
Niels van der Boom
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