Farm buyout scheme could have been €1.5 billion cheaper and 3x more effective

The government’s buyout scheme for peak-polluting farmers could have been €1.5 billion cheaper and yielded three times the nitrogen savings, according to research by Omroep Gelderland, NRC, and Follow the Money (FTM).

The Ministry of Agriculture spent €1.81 billion to buy out 723 farms, according to figures from March last year. According to the Ministry, this would reduce the nitrogen surplus by 8 percent.

But if the Ministry had followed Johan Remkes’ advice on the scheme and bought out the few hundred largest peak emitters, the same nitrogen savings could have been achieved with only €330 million. Moreover, only 133 livestock farms would have had to close, according ot the research.

The researchers also calculated that if the Ministry used the €1.81 billion it already spent on the buy-out scheme to buy out 764 targeted farms, it could have cut three times as much nitrogen emissions as it did.

However, successive Cabinets decided that the buying out of livestock farms must happen voluntarily. So instead of following Remkes’ advice, then-Nitrogen Minister Christianne van der Wal opened a “wildly attractive” buyout scheme to the 3,000 livestock farms with the highest nitrogen deposition in Natura 2000 nature reserves.

These are not necessarily the farms wth the most animals. Smaller livestock farms close to Natura 2000 areas can also be peak polluters. But it makes a difference which livestock farm from this group you buy out. According to the researchers, buying out the 550 most polluting farms yields roughly the same nitrogen gains as buying out nearly 2,500 other peak polluters.

Many of the government buyouts were companies that did not fall in the 550 most polluting farms. And part of the farmers who signed up for the buy-out scheme haven’t closed down their businesses yet.

This research proved extremely challenging for the three media outlets. They had to launch lengthy legal proceedings before caretaker Agriculture Minister Femke Wiersma (BBB) released the data they requested. The court ultimately had to order the Minister to release data. On Monday, the three media outlets announced that they would take the matter to court again, because the Minister only released data up to March last year.

In response to the research, Wiersma told NRC that the peak polluter scheme is “very targeted and efficient” because 3,000 farms with the highest nitrogen deposition were allowed to participate. Her spokesperson also said that forcing farmers to close down would be much more time-consuming than giving them a choice.

Wiersma’s Ministry announced a new buyout scheme for livestock farmers on Monday. Citizens and organizations first have a chance to comment before the scheme opens.