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The Dutch livestock produces not only milk and meat, but manure too.

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Manure is a fertiliser, it contains nutrients (minerals) for crops to grow.

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Part of these nutrients is not absorbed and leaches into the ground water and surface water...

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polluting the environment.

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This is why the European Union sets standards by which member states can regulate how much manure farmers are allowed to use on their land.

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In addition to the EU application standard for nitrogen from animal manure...

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the Netherlands has its own standards for the total amount of
nitrogen fertiliser, which exceed the standard for manure.

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The farmer can supplement the difference between the two with chemical fertilisers.

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Under certain conditions the EU allows Dutch farmers, as well as farmers in several other countries, to use more manure than the EU standard.

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This is called derogation from the Nitrates Directive.

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In order to qualify for derogation, farmers must cultivate at least 80% of their area as grassland.

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Grass absorbs the nutrients better than crops like corn.

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This means there is less leaching of nutrients into groundwater and surface water.

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Derogation provides farmers with financial benefits in two ways.

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Firstly, they have to spend less on the removal of manure away from their farm...

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secondly they don’t have to buy as much chemical fertilisers.

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With the Minerals Policy Monitoring Programme,

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RIVM has been measuring water quality on 300 derogation farms since 2006.

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Wageningen Economic Research collects information about agricultural practices and fertiliser use.

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These monitoring programmes demonstrate that the use of more manure by derogation farms

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does not have a negative impact on water quality.

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This is due to the fact that the total amount of admissible fertilisers has not increased.

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In addition, the use of land as grassland is promoted...

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which helps decrease the leaching of nutrients.