News Nitrogen
NMV: The Agricultural Agreement is a closed book for us
The Dutch Dairy Farmers Union (NMV) is leaving the Agricultural Agreement consultations. The representative no longer sees any point in the consultation and lacks confidence in a successful outcome. According to director Jeroen van Maanen, the consultation is definitely a closed book.
"The original goal of the Agricultural Agreement is to regain some confidence between the agricultural parties and politicians. This must be concluded in a joint agreement that offers perspective. During the process, we have lost confidence in a successful outcome." said Van Maanen in a reaction to Boerenbusiness. From the NMV board, he usually sat with chairman Henk Bleker at the 'dairy and veal farming' sector table discussion.
NMV had given Agriculture Minister Piet Adema an ultimatum of 10 days, with commitments to be made for the 'pain points'. By this, Van Maanen is referring to the legalization for PAS notifiers, the abandonment of LSU standards per hectare and the removal of the critical deposition value (KDW) from the law. In addition, NMV wants to extend the application standards for animal manure and to preserve agricultural land. This ultimatum expired last Sunday, without the minister making any concrete commitments. After internal deliberation, NMV decided to pull the plug definitively.
Extensification
"The main point of the consultation should be to provide perspective and restore confidence, but it was not." According to Van Maanen, the political will to extensify was always on the table. Moreover, reimbursing eco-services as compensation for extensification proves to be complex. This is due to a lack of budget for this and alleged state aid. "You can sense from everything that the Agricultural Agreement is aimed at reducing livestock, because otherwise Adema cannot sell the plan in The Hague. Promises to solve the nitrogen problem through innovation are not made. We cannot support such an agreement and so we withdraw."
Earlier, the Dutch Dairymen Board (DDB) and Agractie already resigned, with the latter then indicating that the book has not yet been closed and can be reopened if there is a prospect of a good outcome.
Wouter Job
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