Dutch manure crisis



The Dutch manure crisis (Dutch: mestcrisis) is an anticipated surge in the surplus of manure in the Netherlands. It is mainly caused by the phasing out of an exemption to the European Union's Nitrates Directive in the years 2023–2025. Because of this manure derogation, Dutch farmers had been allowed to exceed a limit on organic fertilization, intended to protect water resources from nutrient pollution, since 2006.

Due to its expiration, mainly cattle farmers would no longer be able to use all the manure produced to fertilize their lands, resulting in an anticipated yearly surplus of 95 kt of nitrogen in 2026.

Background
To combat nutrient pollution of water, the European Union has limited the use of organic fertilizer to 170 kg/ha, where the weight refers to its reactive nitrogen contents. The Netherlands was exempted from this regulation of the Nitrates Directive starting in 2006, and farmers were allowed to use between 35% and 47% more organic fertilizer. The European Commission repeatedly found widespread violations of these limits through regulatory fraud. This exemption, referred to as the manure derogation, was not extended in September 2022, and Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Henk Staghouwer agreed to phase it out over the years 2023–2025.

The agreement also included the creation of buffer zones around watercourses in which no fertilization would be allowed as well as the designation of areas as nutrient-polluted. The latter would have a quicker phasing out of the derogation and a ceiling on total fertilizer usage (including artificial fertilizer). The initial zones included sandy and loess soils in Overijssel, Gelderland, Utrecht, North Brabant, and Limburg in addition to three more areas, covering a combined 40% of the surface area of the Netherlands. On 6 December 2023, Minister of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality Piet Adema announced that the areas designated as nutrient-polluted would be expanded to cover 60% of the Netherlands. This mostly affected the Groene Hart as well as the provinces of Zeeland, Flevoland, Friesland, Groningen, and Drenthe.

A surge in the manure surplus was anticipated as a result of these measures allowing less organic fertilization to occur. According to de Volkskrant, this would affect cattle farmers most severely, as they could previously rely on liquid manure to fertilize their expansive lands. Manure not directly used as organic fertilizer – common in pig and poultry farming – was typically used domestically in manure processing factories or exported. The yearly Dutch manure surplus amounted to 15 – of nitrogen in the years 2021–2022. This was expected to rise to 95 kt of nitrogen in 2026 by the independent Dutch Center for Valorisaton of Manure (NCM), who performed an investigation at the request of Het Financieele Dagblad. Over 80% of that increase was attributed to the expiration of the derogation and the fertilization-free buffer zones. The expansion of the nutrient-polluted areas would result in a similar decline in fertilizer usage, but the NCM estimated three quarters of that decline would concern artificial fertilizer – not impacting the manure surplus. The NCM's director said he expected the costs of manure disposal of €20–€25 per tonne of nitrogen to double.

Political response
The cabinet created a €120-million fund to partly compensate the farmers most affected. In December 2023, he House of Representatives passed a motion by the VVD with widespread support calling on the cabinet to present an action plan to tackle the crisis before March 2024.