25 February 2019
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On January 22, Minister Schouten sent a letter to the House about the realization of the Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality vision. In this letter she describes how she is going to realize her plans for circular agriculture. One way is to bring together knowledge and experience and involved parties from the Agri-food sector.
From consultations with farmers it appears that they mainly need a long-term and concrete trade perspective for their company and cooperating companies. There is a plea for steering on goals, where people are challenged to take their own steps in the desired direction. Now initiatives are often judged rather than applauded. In doing so, it is important that business partners of farmers and governments are aligned and do not provide conflicting incentives.
Circulation agriculture in practice
At the moment 60 projects and programs of circular agriculture have been initiated and many cattle farmers, arable farmers and horticulturists are already putting the 'circular thinking' into practice. Minister Schouten believes that the government has the task of creating the right conditions to enable the transition to circular agriculture. With this in mind, the digital counter 'Doe mee met de omslag naar kringlooplandbouw' has been set up, where farmers, horticulturalists, fishermen and other entrepreneurs can report their initiatives for recycling agriculture.
From here, the discussion started on how farmers who take climate and sustainability into account can get a fair price for their products. In Amsterdam, Wageningen professors Imke de Boer and Louise Vet, Iris Bouwers (vice president CEJA-European Council of Young Farmers), Barbara Baarsma (Rabobank) and Minister Carola Schouten debated how farmers can make this possible in the first place. What transpires: the circular farmer has to achieve a higher margin by adding up all kinds of subsidies. Minister Schouten says that she wants to facilitate and stimulate innovations, but that certain subsidies depend on agreements already made with Brussels. In the future, Minister Schouten may, with the approval of the EU, change the general hectare supplement for farmers into targeted subsidies for restoring biodiversity and climate-friendly measures. The details of this will follow later this year, when her global cycle vision gets hands and feet.
Gathering and sharing knowledge
Schouten's pillars are also focused on knowledge sharing and application on the farm, particularly the application of current knowledge and knowledge gained from (scientific) research to achieve circular agriculture. As an example she mentions the 'the Acceleration House Circular Economy', where circular entrepreneurs can get help and realize circular projects together with financiers and the government. Not unimportant is to include education in the development to train and retrain professionals in agriculture, horticulture, fisheries, food industry and nature management. Also, current education will connect to the vision so that nature-inclusive agriculture becomes an integral part of all green education.
In May Minister Schouten will present to the House of Representatives a Realization Plan for a Vision of Agriculture, Nature and Food, which will focus on two questions: "Are we able to achieve innovations that help farmers develop in the desired direction?" and "Will farmers succeed in earning a good income if they move in that direction?" Then the agreements made with social partners become clear.
Sources > Agriholland, WUR, Letter to the House