Agriculture could forever disappear from traditional peat soil areas

THE HAGUE - Many former peat bogs now are returned to nature, pushing farmers off these former land reclamations. Agriculture is bound to disappear from these ’wetlands’ to concentrate in other areas of the country. This especially is anticipated for the three Northern provinces, Friesland, Groningen and Drenthe as well as in North and South Holland, where seventy percent of the peat-soil aerial is used for farming, with half taken up by dairy farms. According to the government’s Environmental Plan Bureau, farming eventually will adjust to the kind of soil in a particular area. By 2040, farming in the former peat bogs could be a thing of the past and be replaced by nature reserves, open water and cattle-free meadows.