Manure crisis hits Dutch farmers

Just before Christmas, Dutch farmers received long-feared news from Brussels: they would have to drastically cut the amount of manure they put on their land because too much nitrogen was leaching into watercourses, damaging local wildlife.

The disposal of animal excrement has convulsed Dutch politics for years. When the government tried to compulsorily buy out livestock holdings to reduce production, it sparked a wave of rural protests that could return just as a new and fragile governing coalition takes office.

The densely populated nation of 18mn has almost as many farm animals as people, and the strain on nature is showing. Hundreds of farms are closing every year, and pig, sheep and cattle numbers are declining as their impact on the environment hits strict EU limits on nitrogen, phosphorus and nature restoration. It is a wrenching process for a country that is the world’s second biggest food exporter by value after the US (some of that is re-exports).

The impact of environmental rules has combined with subsidy reductions, soaring prices for inputs such as herbicides and fertilisers, and volatile agricultural prices to cut into morale in rural communities, Bart Millenaar of farmers’ union LTO told he Financial Times. Nitrogen levels are constantly monitored, while farmers must secure permits to add to their livestock herds. The crisis has fed into the country’s turbulent politics.

Rural disaffection and the pure PR system propelled a populist coalition of parties led by the far-right Geert Wilders to power in 2024. But within a year Wilders had pulled out, leaving a caretaker cabinet to limp on until this month. The Farmers-Citizen Movement, part of the outgoing government, was punished for failing to deliver on promises to farmers that it could solve their problems — including by convincing Brussels to extend the exemption to the nitrogen limit.

Following elections last year, the liberal D66 in January announced a minority government with the centre-right VVD and Christian Democrats. After two years without a clear farm policy, incoming prime minister Rob Jetten has pledged to cut nitrogen emissions from agriculture by 42 to 46 per cent from 2019 levels by 2030, and said the government will continue buying up farms to reduce livestock. He also wants to fund innovation including plant-based meat alternatives and sustainable pesticides.

Millenaar, of the farmers’ union, said farmers had been buffeted by the changes. “They want stability. In six years we’ve had three governments with different policies,” he told the FT.

Now one more safety valve is being taken away. While the EU limits nitrogen emissions to 170kg per hectare per year, the European Commission had allowed Dutch farmers to use 250kg because of its large animal herd. The Commission ended that exemption in a letter on December 23.  Jessika Roswall, the EU’s environment commissioner, wrote that “the Netherlands continues to face very serious challenges in managing nitrates and nitrogen. A further derogation would add to these pressures at a time when water quality and nitrogen pollution remain a pressing concern.” She said the government had not implemented an action plan to cut nitrogen emissions, which also come from vehicle fumes, industry and households. The limit will be gradually reduced to 170kg over the coming year.

The Netherlands is not alone in struggling to meet the nitrogen ceiling: it is being breached across the wet, northern countries that produce much of Europe’s milk and cheese. Ireland has been given three more years of higher limits but is reducing its dairy herd before it is too late. Belgium and Germany have been given warnings by the Commission.

Analysis by academics at Wageningen University in January found there were only three potential solutions to the crisis: reducing livestock numbers, improving manure processing to export more or reducing the protein content of cattle feed. But such measures come too late for many farmers.