Landbouwpraktijk en waterkwaliteit op landbouwbedrijven aangemeld voor derogatie in 2022

Samenvatting

Dutch farms that meet certain conditions, such as a minimum of 80 percent acreage as grassland, may use more animal manure than the general limit prescribed by the European Nitrates Directive. This partial exemption is referred to as ‘derogation’. The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Wageningen Economic Research monitor the water quality on 300 farms in the derogation monitoring network. On derogation farms, the concentration of nitrate in groundwater decreased between 2006 and 2017. In the following years, nitrate concentrations increased, especially in the Sand region. This increase is probably due to the droughts occurring in 2018-2020. Due to drought, less nitrogen is broken down, causing the nitrate concentration in groundwater to rise. Since 2021, the nitrate concentration in all regions has decreased, and this decrease continued in 2022, most likely due to some wetter years. In 2023, average nitrate concentrations in the upper metre of the groundwater were below the EU standard of 50 milligrams per litre for most regions. Only in the south and east of the Sand region was the concentration, on average, equal to the standard. In this region, 47 percent of the derogation farms are above the standard. Changes in legislation and management have resulted in farmers using less nitrogen from animal manure. As a result, the nitrogen surplus on the soil surface balance has decreased, especially between 2006 and 2017. This means that less nitrogen, in the form of nitrate, was available to leach to the lower parts of soil profiles and eventually into the groundwater. From 2018 to 2022, the soil surplus fluctuates. On average, derogation farms have used 228 kilograms of nitrogen from animal manure per hectare in 2022. This is less than the 230 or 250 kilograms of nitrogen per hectare allowed, depending on the soil type and region. The monitoring was commissioned by the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature, and Food Quality. In September 2022, the European Commission decided to phase out the derogation for the Netherlands. From 2026 on, the Netherlands will no longer have a derogation.