Farmers sought to participate in pilot nature-inclusive agriculture

In 2021, the European Union's new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) will enter into force. This will include more far-reaching requirements regarding climate, environment and biodiversity, which will have to take shape in the coming period. The Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) has set up seven national pilots to obtain input for this new CAP. For the Limburg pilot project 'Green, productive and living Limburg', the search is now on for participating farmers.

Transition to nature inclusive agriculture

'Green, productive and living Limburg' is a two-year project of the Natuurrijk Limburg cooperative and Arvalis consultancy. The Louis Bolk Institute is also involved in this pilot project. The central theme is the transition to nature inclusive agriculture, a form of sustainable agriculture that makes use of functional biodiversity and natural processes. How can conventional agriculture be made more structurally friendly? In the pilot project information is gathered and experience gained that can serve as input for the new CAP.

High-quality grassland

Stan Bruijsten of Arvalis indicates that he is looking for about a hundred entrepreneurs for the pilot. Together with these participants, we are looking for potential eco-services for farmers, such as an intensive herb-rich grassland. This type of grassland, which in addition to English ryegrass and clovers also consists of chicory and narrow plantain, is sown after, for example, the grain and corn harvest, or in the spring. The pilot project will investigate whether the effects on the soil and yield are positive.

Other possible eco-services are phased mowing management, perennial flowering field edges, sowing overcorners and buffer strips along ditches with flower mixtures and mechanical weed control in fruit cultivation. In cooperation with livestock farmers, it can be investigated whether winter cover and broadening the crop plan with cereals and rest crops lead to positive results.

Practical and economic feasibility

The selection of measures is done together with the farmer/entrepreneur, as he/she has to see their usefulness for his/her operations. They are viewed under the condition of practicality (is it feasible within the business in terms of labor and risk) and economic feasibility (win-win measures and / or chain contributions).

During the pilot project, two to four evaluation meetings will be held per ecod service and per region. Here the experiences with the pilot project will be shared and the participants' operational problems will be discussed. During the project bottlenecks will be identified that currently make the implementation of the measures difficult or impossible. Based on this, proposals will be made to the relevant authorities for simplification of, among other things, the CAP policy and/or proposals for bringing different legislation into line with each other.

This pilot project is intended to stimulate the development of new technologies and to improve the quality of the environment.

Subscription

Natuurrijk Limburg and Arvalis are looking for farmers to participate in the pilot, and thus to influence the interpretation of the new CAP. Anyone with an active agricultural business (i.e. anyone who performs the combined task) is welcome to join. You can register via the registration form. For more information, contact Stan Bruijsten of Arvalis at sbruijsten@arvalis.nl or 06-83239127.

Source: New Harvest, Nature Limburg