Dutch farmers’ poll win has lessons for India

Devinder Sharma

Food & Agriculture Specialist

THE Farmer-Citizen Movement (BoerBurgerBeweging or BBB) has caused political tremors in the Netherlands. Riding the wave of farmers’ protest against the environment policies of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s coalition government, the four-year-old party romped home in a provincial election. And expectedly so, after the results were announced on March 16, the Prime Minister said: “This is not the victory we had hoped for.”

The Dutch farmers’ victory, emerging from continued dissatisfaction with the government polices to cut down nitrate pollution on the farm, comes almost a year after an attempt by farmers in Punjab to contest the state elections drew a blank.

As the Dutch newspapers, a day after the election results, talked of the ‘historic lesson’ for the four-party ruling coalition that governs the country, there are important lessons to be drawn from the Dutch victory for a coalition of farmer unions that unsuccessfully contested the Punjab elections.

After all, why did the farmer unions fail to tap into popular sentiments that enabled the iconic farmers’ protest at the gates of New Delhi to last for over a year, is a question that will continue to haunt not only the farm leadership but also political analysts and sociologists. But let us first look at why the Dutch farmers’ growing disenchantment with environment policies got such a big electoral backing.

In Holland, which is smaller in size than Punjab, the farmers’ party got 19 per cent of the total votes. It polled 15 lakh votes in a country where roughly 11,200 arable farms exist. On the other hand, there are an estimated 1.09 lakh farming households in Punjab. And yet, the farmers’ political front, the Sanyukt Samaj Morcha, drew a blank.

Although the Netherlands has been hounded by a rise in nitrogen pollution for several years now, last year the government announced plans to cut down nitrogen emissions from the farms by 50 per cent by 2030. Using the climate change argument, it promised to take 3,000 farms out of cultivation and also reduce the dairy cattle number by a third. Offering 100 per cent the value of land to farmers who give up their land voluntarily, the government also made it clear that it had provisioned 24 billion euros for the purpose.

The agitated farmers took to the streets for months. As their anger spilled over, even going to the extent of dumping animal excreta on the streets, hoisting the Dutch flag upside down in villages became an expression of the widespread resentment. Driving tractors to the cities, farmers said agriculture was being used as a soft target, an alibi to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Accusing the government of not acting against the industry, construction and transport sectors with equal determination, farmers said they were being unfairly targeted.

Backed by the citizens’ support, the growing disenchantment with the government policies finally hit the ballot box. “Our worries are not yet over, but, at least, we can fly the flag the right side up again,” Eric Stegink, the party chairman, tweeted after the victory.

Following an intensive farming model for several decades, the Netherlands is the world’s second-biggest agricultural exporter. Using 277.8 kg of fertiliser per hectare, its fertiliser consumption is also among the highest in the world. Engaging with the latest technologies, the Dutch innovations in farming have been widely acclaimed. These impressive gains are reflected through the export statistics. But with four times, by weight, the number of cattle on the farms, it is also the world’s biggest exporter of manure and the biggest exporter of meat in Europe. However, continuous leaching of harmful chemicals into the groundwater had been a political issue in the tiny country. Some people had even lost elections. Desperate to get over the problem, some years ago, Holland had even tried to export cow dung and piggery droppings to India.

When I disclosed that the Netherlands was trying to export cow dung to India, and it was in 1994 at the time of the release of my book GATT and India: The Politics of Agriculture, it became a hot-button issue that was debated in Parliament. With questions being raised about how cow manure could be imported by a country that has the largest population of cattle, some civil society groups had even offloaded cartloads of manure in front of Krishi Bhawan.

According to the plan, the aim was to export 5 million tonnes of manure to India, which would be offloaded in the Kutch region, dried in the sun and mixed with additional nutrients and then marketed by a private company in India. Since the cow dung in western countries is in a semi-liquid form, Holland was to collect it through a network of pipes converging at a port, make biogas which would be supplied to a private company there, and the slurry exported to India. Subsidised by the European Commission, the exports were to be doubled in five years’ time.

Not until Parliament was informed that the import of cow dung had been brought under the negative list (meaning approval from the government required before the import) did the Opposition relent.

The stakes are, therefore, high. Nearly 45 per cent of the nitrogen emissions in Holland come from agriculture. But the answer does not lie in forcing farmers off the land. To be fair, farmers need to be given some more time to bring about the environmental changes required. This will also require a change in research paradigm for agricultural research and development, moving towards environmentally-safe farming practices.

This also has lessons for India. Blindly borrowing the high-tech production techniques and using more chemical inputs will necessitate drastically cutting down on increasing emissions from Indian agriculture in the years to come, which means forcing farmers off the land.

Let us, therefore, not repeat this mistake but, instead, focus on our own inherent strengths. Bring in economic viability on the farm and promote the agro-ecological farming system. 

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