Dutch farmland has been so over-cultivated that small scale projects to encourage farmers to leave land to nature are a waste of time, according to three professors in Tuesday’s Trouw.

The government currently spends €70m a year on encouraging farmers to allow parts of their land to revert to nature. But the intensification of farming has created ‘dead land’, the professors argue.
For example,the number of birds living on Dutch farmland has reached record low levels, the paper says.
Hedges and woodland
In order for farm-based nature projects to be successful, at least 5% of a farm should consist of hedges, woodland and ditches. But on the average Dutch farm, only 2% of land has been left uncultivated.
The professors say new money for ‘green farming’ from Brussels should only be allocated to farms with at least 5% fallow land.
They also point out that the management of nature by farmers is six times as expensive as that by national organisations such as the forestry commission Staatsbosbeheer.