'Our farmers can make up for some of the food shortages'

The Dutch cabinet and the European Union must consider ten emergency measures to guarantee sufficient affordable food in our country. The agricultural entrepreneurs can make up for part of the shortages, but then they must be given the opportunity to do so. The SGP writes this in a ten-point plan for sufficient nutrition, drawn up by MP Roelof Bisschop and MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen (photo). 

The war in Ukraine threatens to prevent a large part of the sowing of cereals in that country in the coming weeks. The availability of fertilizers and crop protection products to improve harvest and quality is also becoming a challenge. This significantly increases the risk of food shortages in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. "Our farmers can make up for part of the shortages, but then they must be given the opportunity from Brussels and The Hague," SGP MP Roelof Bisschop said in a statement. Ruissen adds: "We must be able to guarantee sufficient affordable food for our population. This is not the time to further restrict agriculture, but the opposite." 

The SGP proposes a package of emergency measures: suspension of mandatory set-aside and buffer strips in the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), support for agricultural and horticultural sectors that are hardest hit by sanctions, maximum space for animal manure instead of artificial fertilisers, immediate extension of the derogation for animal manure and the authorization of mineral concentrates from animal manure as a replacement for artificial fertilisers. The GreenDeal goals for organic farming and those of halving the use of crop protection products and granting exemptions for important products in, for example, onion and sugar beet cultivation must also be suspended and reconsidered.

More space for farmers to sow
The SGP also advocates ending the expropriation of agricultural land in the Netherlands, a temporary ban on solar parks on agricultural land and including the preservation of food production as an important value when drawing up eco-regulations, conditionality and rural development programs in the CAP and the National Strategic Plan. The transfer of the CAP budget from Pillar 1 to Pillar 2 must also be limited and the importance of food production must be taken into account when completing the 7th Nitrates Directive action programme.

Ruissen has also put written questions to the European Commission for more support for agriculture and horticulture, more space for farmers within the CAP to sow grains and more options for applying mineral concentrates from animal manure.  

Problems in developing countries
Frans Timmermans, European Commissioner and creator of the Green Deal, indicated last night (Monday 7 March) to questions from VVD MEP Jan Huitema that he does not foresee any food shortages in the European Union. According to him, the cultivation and harvesting problems in Ukraine will threaten more the countries to which Ukraine exports, such as Africa and the Middle East. Timmermans then foresees major problems, especially in the food supply in developing countries. He also indicated that he would certainly look into the possibilities of what the EU can do about this, without mentioning specific solutions.

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