Farmers have objected en masse to the phosphate rights allocated to them, which determines how many cows they can keep. Where the government counted on more than a thousand objections, that has become eight thousand. There are also more than 600 legal proceedings.

These numbers were announced this afternoon in the House of Representatives by René van der Burg, director at the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO). Since the beginning of this year, all dairy farmers in the Netherlands must have phosphate rights for their cows. This determines how much manure can be produced and how many animals the farmers can keep.

The RVO has taken 23,000 decisions on phosphate rights on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture. Nearly eight thousand farmers objected to this. ,, We had expected more than a thousand, ” Van der Burg said in the House of Representatives.

46 percent are right

In the objection proceedings, 46 percent of farmers have been right up to now. Whether farmers are also entitled to produce more phosphate (and therefore keep more livestock) is unclear. Currently there are more than 600 professions and other legal proceedings. ,, We expected about 50 of that, ” according to the RVO director.

How it is possible that the number of objections and lawsuits is considerably higher than expected, the RVO director could not say. “It turns out to have been different.” “Some 30,000 farmers have called the RVO with questions and complaints about the new phosphate rights system. In addition, the service has answered some 3,000 mails.

Uncertainty

Many farmers are still in uncertainty about the phosphate rights granted to them. Hundreds of dairy farmers have received fewer rights than they need to keep their business afloat.

At the beginning of this month, this newspaper reported that Minister Schouten van Landbouw had wrongly granted phosphate rights to thousands of beef cattle farms. These rights are currently being recalled, but can not be granted to dairy farmers. That annoys the farmers, who have long been urging Schouten for help. In December, the Lower House will again debate the phosphate rights system with the minister.