Sustainable soil management is becoming increasingly important in the province of Noord-Brabant when it comes to the issuance of land, as emerged clearly on Thursday 15 October during the webinar 'From leased land to pRachtgrond'. Farmers who meet the conditions can look forward to a lower rent as a reward.
In the province of Noord-Brabant, more and more attention is being paid to sustainable soil management. There are several reasons for this. For example, for an organization such as Brabant Water, land is essential for the drinking water supply, while the municipality of Vught states that sustainable soil management can lead to higher yields per hectare. In addition, it fits in seamlessly with Minister Schouten's vision for recycling.
The fact that the province is shifting its focus to sustainable soil management is now also reflected in the land allocation. "We no longer only look at those who want to pay the highest price, but also increasingly at the farmer who can give the land the longest future," reports Toine van de Ven of the municipality of Vught. Over the past year, this municipality has made changes to the 'Sustainable Land Issue' pilot and so far it seems to have been a success. "We expected that the higher requirements would result in fewer registrations, but that turned out to be quite bad."
Strict conditions
According to the speakers, the fact that there are not necessarily fewer registrations is mainly due to the fact that the lease term is longer with sustainable land issuance. "Sustainable land issuance focuses in particular on a lease term of 3 to 6 years, which means that there is really space and time to be able to make investments in the land. In the future we may even be able to extend this to 10 years, but for that the results are first analysed," Eric van Lockant of Brabant Water explains.
This new way of allocating land does require considerable additional requirements. For example, in general no slurry may be spread on these grounds, field margins are encouraged, no chemical crop protection products may be used and certain crops are even banned altogether. "We don't allow bulb cultivation on our land, for example, because a lot of spraying is carried out in that cultivation," says Van Lockant. In addition, municipalities are free to adopt additional measures. In the municipality of Vught, for example, participation in the meadow bird covenant is a requirement. "Farmers must cooperate with deferred mowing and must leave their grass behind," explains Van de Ven.
Reward farmers for performance
"But sustainable land allocation does not just mean setting high standards. The farmers are also rewarded for their performance," says Frank Verhoeven of consultancy Boerenverstand. An example of this is the pay table that Brabant Water has drawn up. Farmers can choose from A, B or C measures and applying those measures results in a discount on the lease price. "The higher the ambition to keep the soil healthy, the higher the discount on the lease price," reports Lockant.