Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in the Netherlands
The Netherlands has built an agricultural sector that is a world leader in productivity and competitiveness. But environmental challenges have grown increasingly urgent and the sector will have to adjust. A recent court ruling on nitrogen pollution has set the stage for a transition towards a more environmentally sustainable path that will be difficult and contentious. Leveraging the strong innovation capacity of the sector will be key to finding long-term solutions that work for farmers, citizens and the environment.
Policies for the Future of Farming and Food in the Netherlands takes stock of the current situation in the agriculture sector. It applies the OECD Productivity, Sustainability and Resilience (PSR) analytical framework along with the latest data from the OECD Agri-Environmental Indicators to benchmark the country’s sustainable productivity performance and to identify the main challenges facing the sector, and make suggestions for a possible path forward.
Overall assessment and recommendations
The agriculture and food sector in the Netherlands is innovative and productive, competing in global markets on both price and quality. The sector has followed a development path common to most countries where ongoing consolidation reduces the number of farms while average farm size increases. The agriculture sector has become one of the most efficient in Europe and the world. Trade has expanded fourfold in the past 20 years and the Netherlands is the second largest agricultural exporter in the world, in part due to its role as a major trading hub for Europe. The importance of the greenhouse and horticulture sector as a share of agricultural production value is unique in Europe. The horticulture sector operates on a different model than does the rest of Dutch agriculture; it uses relatively little land, receives a small amount of support from agricultural policy and is exposed to different risks than other forms of production.
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