In the Dutch horticulture and agriculture sectors, scaling up is still a common term and also an ambition. It would be a necessity in the light of future-oriented business. In NRC (a Dutch newspaper) WUR former professor Jan Douwe van der Ploeg criticizes that idea.
"We had a business model. It was about ongoing scaling-up, intensification, specialization and market conquest. Viewed properly, that model is bankrupt because Dutch agriculture and animal husbandry encounter ecological, legal and financial limits. Nevertheless, the agricultural sector does not want to get rid of it at all. Instead, growers keep looking to the government: guarantee us a revenue model. Farmers, they were self-reliant entrepreneurs, right? Or are they employed by the government?"
The former professor is critical of the cabinet plans, which do not specify 'new business models'. According to him, the cabinet is mainly committed to less regulation, relaxing environmental standards, technological solutions to pollution, no forced shrinkage of livestock.
In the newspaper, Van der Ploeg argues for a return to the small growers of old, and more diversity in agribusiness. In other words, not just bigger and bigger farms. "It quickly sounds nostalgic, but the fascinating thing is that the earning capacity of smaller, ecological farmers can exceed that of more industrialized agriculture. It does require more labor, but there are fewer investments and costs, and less money goes to suppliers, for fertilizers, for example. At first, yields are lower, but with knowledge and skill, incomes can become very decent."
Source: NRC (€)
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