Agriculture Minister Femke Wiersma is under increasing pressure to exempt pig and poultry farmers from stricter regulations on manure spreading, as MPs prepare to vote on cabinet plans.

Wiersma says stricter limits are needed to comply with EU limits when the Netherlands’ special derogation ends in 2026. “We’re just not going to achieve it with exemptions,” he said. she said at a commission meeting last week.

But she faced criticism from MPs, including her colleagues from the BBB farmers’ party, who did not decide whether to support her plans in Tuesday’s vote.

Poultry farmers’ organizations hope to rely on the BBB to support an amendment from the opposition parties SGP and CDA that would exempt them from restrictions on the amount of animal manure they can spread on their own fields.

The industry led a grassroots campaign, sharing films and letters in WhatsApp groups urging the BBB to reject Wiersma’s plans. Party leader Caroline van der Plas responded by taking responsibility for the manure problem, succeeding agriculture spokesperson Cor Pierik.

“Catastrophic”

Bert-Jan Oplaat, president of the poultry breeders’ association NVP, said the plans would be “disastrous” for his colleagues. “If this really comes to fruition, at least several hundred poultry farmers will go out of business,” he said.

Poultry farmers say the rules aim to protect groundwater from pollution caused by manure spread on fields by livestock farmers, while the majority of waste from chicken and other poultry farms is transported to a biomass plant in Moerdijk where they are converted into green energy.

The CDA and SGP believe that the government should return to the old methods of calculating pollution, which give more leeway to the 1,700 Dutch poultry farmers. “It would be terrible to end the business when there is no justification for it,” said CDA MP Eline Vedder.

But an Agriculture Ministry spokesman said the Netherlands must comply with agreements reached in Brussels to reduce manure levels. “This is the total production,” explained the spokesperson.