Bert
Van Ruyven
Keywords
A
Agro-food Exports
The Netherlands
is the third exporting country in the world for agro-food products
behind the USA and France. Taking into account the small cultivated
land surface per inhabitant and the high population rate, this result
brings respect. Such a result is obtained with a high technical knowledge
and a high production yield both for soils and for farmers. But it
also depends on the high rate of agricultural raw material imports
as fodder for instance. These imports helped develope a remarkable
intensification in the animal breeding i.e. the industrial livestock
breeding (pigs, hen).
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Agricultural
production yield Intensity
This production yield is measured by the production
rate per hectare. In US dollars it is the highest in Europe and one
of the highest in the world (after Japan). With 1.6% of the cultivated
land surface in Europe, The Netherlands represent 8% of the total
European agricultural production.
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E
Economical Organization and cooperation
The Dutch agricultural
model is traditionnally an example of liberal economy. The market
organization and particularly the "auction sale system" (the dial
sale), gives a better sight on the market situation and helps develope
concurrency. But the Dutch farmers stick strongly together and created
numerous agricultural cooperatives. These cooperatives deal with 60%
of the Dutch market. As any other country in the European Union ,
The Netherlands develope now their activities in the frame of a Common
Agricultural Policy (CAP), have to follow common rules, and get financial
support from the European Community.
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Land prices
The
more scarce is the land, the more intensive is the production per hectare
and the more expensive is the land. Therefore the Dutch land price is
extremely high. This country is not only exportator for agro-food products,
it is also exporting farmers looking in Europe or through out the world,
for a piece of land at a good price and large field surfaces better
than what they can find in their own country. European Union helps farmer
migrations.
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Land potential yield
The land potential
yield measured by the production value per hectare is in fact the
agricultural production value. In The Netherlands, it is 4203 $ per
hectare. The work task productivity is obtained by taking the cultivated
land surface per active worker (Sa) multiplied by the production value
per hectare (P). In The Netherlands, the cultivate land surface per
active worker is low since the population rate is very high, it is
8.5 hectares. The resulting work task productivity can be obtained
as follows: 8.5 x 4203 $ = 35831 $. This work task productivity is
one of the highest in Europe and can be explained by the very high
agricultural intensity.
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P
Pollution
A very high population
rate with big cities, a very high agricultural
production rate implying a large use of fertilizers and pesticides,
a high concentration of industrial live-stock breeding farms,… all
this explains that the pollution rate (of different kinds) is particularly
high in The Netherlands. It is now one the major political concern
of this country.
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Population Rate
The population
rate is usually measured by km² of a state territory. The Netherlands
have the highest population rate among the European countries and also
in the world. From the agricultural point of view, a more significant
number for population rate is not the number of people per km² but the
number of people compared to the field surface, and more specifically,
compared to the cultivated land. Thus in The Netherlands, in 1990, the
population rate per cultivated km² was 1666 inhabitants . Such a population
rate means 0.06 hectare per inhabitant (i.e. 150 acres). In China it
is 0,08 hectare per inhabitant, in Japan 0.04 (which means the smallest
surface in the world), while in France it is 0.34 and in the USA 0.75.
Taking into account the high population rate The Netherlands must reach
a high potential yield per hectare to feed its population, as it is
the case for the Asiatic countries. Moreover, The Netherlands is a net
exportator (they export more than they import).
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T
Training and technical knowledge
The high production
yield for the soils and for the working task, can be explained by the
level of education and of training reached by the farmers as well as
by the high level of technical knowledge. Scientific research, education,
agricultural technical knowledge, are extremely common and performing.
The general tendency is the total controle of the production environment:
the greenhouse plant growth is a perfect example. The Dutch agriculture
is the most industrialized in Europe, which means the industrial activities
( intermediate products, equipment, process of the agricultural products
) is a very high part of the production costs as well as the taxes (VAT).
The farmers get both a technical and economical training and apply the
most performing methods in the management of the money investment per
farmer which gives the best result in Europe.
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