Perils of Dutch agriculture model

Imported modes of intensive agriculture do not serve India well

The Netherlands, though 80 times smaller than India in size, holds the distinction of being the second-largest exporter of agricultural products, with annual exports reaching $110 billion. National Geographic called Holland ‘a tiny country that feeds the world’.

Enamoured by this achievement in the agricultural sector, India has signed 27 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with the Netherlands, with a special focus on establishing sustainable food systems through state-of-the-art agricultural technology. Our government claims that by adopting the Dutch agri-horticulture model, it can potentially double the farmer’s income and implement technologies capable of addressing the climate change crisis.  However, what is the reality of India becoming the ‘food factory of the world’ through adopting the Dutch model of agriculture?

Despite the hype surrounding feeding the word, farmers in Holland are protesting similar to their counterparts in India. If modern technology has indeed helped produce abundant quantities of butter, milk, meat, and vegetables with high productivity, farmers’ incomes should reflect this success. 

Paradoxically, the prices of milk and farm produce are decreasing, sometimes failing to recover production costs, while input costs are on the rise. Does it sound familiar? This scenario is very similar to the challenges faced by farmers in India.

The unprecedented concentration of agricultural retail chains buying farm produce at low prices to maximise profits at the expense of farmers forces them into intensive farming methods to make reasonable profits. Unfortunately, this often results in a vicious cycle of debt, with farmers taking out more loans and resorting to unsustainable practices such as converting their livestock into mere production units and relying on imported high-protein feed for animals such as pigs and chickens. 

Unable to cope with the stress of producing more and debt, over the last five decades, the number of farmers in Holland has decreased from 4,00,000 to 54,000! 

While there are some benefits to this model of industrial agriculture, such as increased profits for banks that provide loans and the subsidies provided by the European Union benefiting wealthy corporate farmers, the most drastic impact is on the environment. Multinational seed and pesticide companies, the ones producing agricultural machinery and irrigation systems, have reaped enormous profits at the expense of farmers. 

High emissions of nitrogen from intensive agricultural practices contribute to climate change. While productivity increases, over 124 000 metric tonnes of nitrogen are emitted, which contributes not only to climate change but also leads to groundwater pollution and biodiversity loss. In 1994, there was a proposal to export their excess cow dung to the tune of 6 million tonnes annually to India as ‘eco-dung’ as a novel solution. Fortunately, the public outcry over this led to the cancellation of the project and the end of the dung war. 

After luring farmers into the energy-intensive farming trap, the Dutch government and European Union now want the farmers to change course, stop the emissions, or quit farming. Unable to find a solution, the farmers have taken to street protests.

Industrial farming not only harms animals, but it also fails farmers, as they earn less than the minimum wage while benefiting corporate houses, which sell seeds, inputs, and machinery, banks, and the large food processing industry. Lastly, consumers are not happy to eat factory-produced food that is harmful to their health and causes harm to water and soil. 

Another direct consequence of this subsidy-driven high-end industrial farming is the dumping of milk powder and other farm produce into poorer countries, which has led to the destruction of the livelihoods of peasant farmers and local food production systems.
Having succeeded in enticing farmers into the trap of intensive farming, industrial agriculture proponents are doling out a solution to this crisis. It is the mantra of ‘vertical farming’. With the rising energy costs due to the Ukraine war, they are forced to close down this new venture.

Despite these risks, the Dutch model continues to be promoted globally, including in India, where its implementation in Punjab, Haryana under the Green Revolution, and some parts of irrigated regions has resulted in adverse effects. It has led to widespread farmer suicides and environmental degradation. The fall in micronutrients in the food produced through chemical-intensive agriculture is also impacting the health of present and future generations.

In India, we have hundreds of initiatives across diverse ecological zones that support sustainable agriculture, with small peasant farmers at the centre. It is based on local inputs that are not only production-oriented but also enable soil, water, and biodiversity conservation. The need is to scale up these local initiatives rather than follow the unsustainable Dutch model.

(The writer is a farmer and Uttara Kannada-based environmentalist)