Dutch agricultural sector: We face a crisis that we have never faced before

By Annabel Murphy

It’s early morning in May and Dutch farmer, Jos Verstraten is busy harvesting the first cut of grass on his sandy soil farm in the south east of the country, close to the German border. The harvest will be dried, compressed and stored to use as feedstock for 150 dairy cows during the winter months.

It’s been a much better start to the season with enough rainfall to keep the grass green and soil moist for the following spring harvests. This is a different story, he said, to the last “five to six years” where abnormally intense heat and dryer months made farming difficult and unpredictable.

Verstraten, who is also a board member of the Netherlands Agricultural and Horticultural Association, LTO, has been a dairy farmer for 35 years and has never before experienced climate change this way. The warming effects are felt “every day” on the farm.

“Last year we were irrigating our crops because it was already too dry in May and that was the case for the few years before that too. This year there is more rain luckily, but we as a farming community feel very uncertain - just look how dry southern Spain is so far this year,” he said.

The Dutch agricultural industry is facing enormous upheaval. The country is the world’s second largest agri-exporter and has the world’s densest population of livestock, having a significant environmental impact on biodiversity, air, water and soil quality in the surrounding environment. How to solve this complex issue is being faced head-on between governments and farmers.

Some members of the Dutch government have said the industry must halve the number of livestock to dramatically reduce ammonia levels in the atmosphere and nitrogen deposition. Consequently, farming protests and