Concerns over effectiveness of organic farming policy

The Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) wants to catch up considerably, going from four per cent now to 15 per cent organic farming area in 2030.

However, the Court of Audit's Accountability Survey LNV 2022 raises doubts about the effectiveness of the minister's policy to achieve this goal. These concerns are based on research into organic farming policy since 2001 and plans for the coming years. The research shows that the targets set have not been met over the past 20 years. Despite the Minister of LNV setting several targets in the past, including a growth to 10 per cent organic farming area by 2010. Moreover, no more specific targets have been set for organic farming between 2012 and 2022.

The minister wants the organic farming area to grow to 15 per cent by 2030. This means that organic farming should go from about 80,000 hectares now to about 300,000 hectares by 2030, an almost fourfold increase within seven years. This ambition is significant compared to previous targets in the period 2001-2010, when organic farming area only grew to 2.5 per cent, compared to the initial target of growing to 10 per cent. Moreover, the Court finds that more than half of the proposed actions are more or less similar to actions already included in previous policy plans.

Another concern is the minister's declining financial support for organic farming. Over the past decade, organic farming in the Netherlands has not been promoted with public funds. Although there were schemes for sustainable agriculture in general, which both organic and other sustainable farmers could take advantage of, the Netherlands is the only country in the European Union that does not specifically encourage organic farming with European money from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

For the minister's new plans, the budget is still unclear. However, to implement the actions in the action plan, the minister has made €26 million available for 2023 and 2024. However, the Ministry of LNV indicates that this amount is not enough to implement all the actions in the action plan.

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