Legal standards for the use of fertilisers in the Netherlands (MINAS)
The MINAS mineral accounting system is a policy instrument for limiting the loss of fertilisers in agricultural land. This indicator lists the standards for fertilisers in the current policy, as well as new policy proposals.
| Phosphate standards | Nitrogen standards | |||||||
| Grass | Green maize | Grass | Green maize | |||||
| other arable and | other arable and | |||||||
| horticultural crops | horticultural crops | |||||||
| and fallow land | ||||||||
| A | B | C | D | E | ||||
| kg P2O5/ha/year | kg N/ha/year | |||||||
| Use standard for manure (for holdings not required to keep accounts under MINAS system) | ||||||||
| 1-1-1998 to 1-1-2000 | 120 | 100 | ||||||
| 1-1-2000 to 1-1-2002 | 85 | 85 | ||||||
| 1-1-2002 and after | 80 | 80 | ||||||
| Levy-free surplus under MINAS (for holdings required to keep accounts under MINAS system) | ||||||||
| 1-1-1998 to 1-1-2000 | 40 | 40 | 300 | 300 | 175 | 175 | 175 | |
| 1-1-2000 to 1-1-2001 | 35 | 35 | 275 | 275 | 150 | 150 | 150 | |
| 1-1-2001 to 1-1-2002 | 35 | 35 | 250 | 250 | 150 | 125 | 125 | |
| 1-1-2002 to 1-1-2003 | 25 | 30 | 220 | 190 | 150 | 100 | 110 | |
| Standard from 1-1-2003 onwards | 20 | 20 | 180 | 140 | 100 | 60 | 100 | |
| Source: LNV and VROM (2000 and 2001). | RIVM/EDC/May03/0400 | |||||||
| A= grassland, B= grassland on dry sand/loess, C= developed or fallow land on clay or peat, D= developed or fallow land on dry sand/loess, E= developed or fallow land on other soil types. | ||||||||
MINAS
The MINAS mineral accounting system has been in force since 1 January 1998. It requires farmers to keep up-to-date accounts of minerals and to pay a charge if their mineral/nutrient surplus per hectare exceeds the established loss standard for phosphate and/or nitrogen. With effect from 2001, all holdings are required to submit a MINAS report, with the exception of very small holdings. To safeguard the MINAS system of levy-free surpluses, livestock holders must hold manure transfer contracts by 1 January 2002.
Adopted fertiliser policy
In 2001, the Dutch Lower House introduced a stricter manure policy. This change requires the standards for 2008/2010 to be achieved by 2003. These standards are therefore the current policy and they are shown in the table above.
New policy proposals
The Fertilisers Act was evaluated in the spring of 2002 (RIVM, 2002). In response to this evaluation, the government put forward a proposal in October 2002 to phase in a number of standards (LNV, 2002). A number of transitional standards will apply in 2003:
- for grassland on dry sand, the transitional standard is 160 kg N/ha grassland instead of 140 kg (column B in the table);
- for developed land, the amended standard is 80 kg N/ha instead of 60 kg (column D).
For phosphate on developed land (not on grass), the envisaged policy for both 2003 and the years thereafter is to relax the standard of 20 kg P2O5/ ha to 25 kg P2O5/ha.
The proposal of the government still has to be debated by parliament.
