La Licorne

AGRICULTURE

As the only graduate of an agricultural university my work for the province was pretty varied. In the first half of the seventies I sat in the planning committees of land consolidation projects, advised widely on land use matters and ran the secretariat of a provincial advisory board on agriculture. The year 1970 is pretty far away, and times were different the more. Take the meetings. These were noisy happenings with a lot of theater unlike the dull performances of today. Notably the confrontations with lawyers and ecologists ran high. Certain characters completed the fun. Take Mr van V who used to doze off visibly and loudly in the middle of meetings. This led his foes to think that they were in for an easy one, but at the right moment he would rise, extend a glossy gaze and make such an appropriate comment that it baffled supporters and opposition alike.

Meanwhile all these discussions completed my sense for ecological values. That didn't mean that the province at large was ready to accept the changing views. Especially in the practice of land consolidation projects, it took a lot of persuasion to convince the hard liners.

At that time agriculture enjoyed an outstanding position in the province, but concern arose about the intensity of animal husbandry keeping. In a study*) my colleague Henk and I showed that for large portions of the province the production of animal manure exceeded the need for fertilizing the land. Before making the results public I ensured myself of the backing of officials from the Ministry of Agriculture. They all acknowledged the facts, but went at length in assuring that the animal herd would not grow much more. In reality the animal population has multiplied itself and both the provincial and national governments are still making up their minds about the necessary interventions. In the meantime there has been an onslaught on the quality of soil, water and air, which can only be controlled by cutting down on the number of animals. Unfortunately a clear policy and adequate assistance to the farmers in re-orienting agricultural production to the demands of the consumer and environment have fallen short. (It took the politicians up to 19 March 2010 to come up with a stand on the size of holdings for animal production.)

During the period 'Van Agt' in the mid eighties I was briefly engaged for the sector once more. With colleague Gerrit we ran a committee of external consultants on agricultural innovation, consisting of De Jong, Wijffels and Maij-Weggen. In consultation with the leading agricultural agents in the province we launched a series of proposals that hit on the relevant issues. Before actual measures could be taken Van Agt made his leave, and subsequently all alarms were set to snooze in order to give governors and management the room to continue their petty rivalry.

*) Streekplan Midden- en Oost Brabant, Deelstudie Landbouw, januari 1973.

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