A new beginning in the new season?

Spring finally arrived at the beginning of April (after a false start in March). Grass and grains color the landscape green, trees are sprouting, the early sown beets are already above the ground and that also applies to the onions. Enjoying the job makes long days work.

Whether the effort will be rewarded remains to be seen. "Sowing is sowing", my father used to say. He was referring to the emergence problems of a sown crop; sometimes too dry for good germination and sometimes too wet. This was followed by drought, which can cause crusting to occur. Something that complicates attendance. With the first you had to sow deeper and with the second you had to sow shallower.

In Wageningen I learned that the seed should not be sown too deeply, but also not too shallow. I didn't get much wiser from that. As soon as the soil was ready, the seed potatoes could also have gone into the soil. In the meantime, however, we had heavy rain showers with 30 to 50 millimeters of precipitation on the South Holland Islands.

hope and fear
The wallet is outside. Hopes and fears about the new season alternate. The hardly rewarding contract prices, against the risk that the free prices entail. The terror of the market has now also reached milk prices and sugar beet prices. We are now better off there too with (European and perhaps even globally) lower yields, in order to better balance supply and demand. That would support the pricing of our products.

On the other hand, the cost of the means of production increases. The individual farmer looks for a solution by increasing scale, broadening it (sometimes even in the form of a job outside the farm) and often by intensification. This has all the consequences for land use. Some get out of this rat race and quit their business.

Regular tenant
Despite its protected status, even the regular tenant struggles to keep their heads above water. It regular lease area has decreased by 2007% from 2011 to 10 and by 2012% from 2017 to 30. In contrast, the liberalized leased area has increased by 95% (annual increase of 15%). This is not because the short-term and more expensive liberalized lease would also be more attractive to the tenant. As lessors' organization FPG would have us believe.

In a letter to Minister Carola Schouten (Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality), the Association of Land Tenants and Own Land Users (BLHB) has underlined its vision on leasehold and land use. During the annual meeting of the BLHB we heard from Aldrick Gierveld, director-general of the Ministry of Agriculture, that we can expect a position from the Ministry shortly. So a new beginning?

Peter van der Eijk

Piet van der Eijk was the chairman of the Association of Land Tenants and Own Land Users (BLHB) from 2012 to the beginning of 2019. He also has an arable farm in the Biesbosch polder in the outskirts of the Eiland van Dordrecht.

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