This working paper provides an overviewand assessment of Dutch manure management policy instrumentsfrom 1984 to 2016. The most successful and cost effectivemeasures have included restrictions on manure spreading, thecreation of a national Manure Bank as an offtake of lastresort, the requirement to inject manure into soil, supportfor flagship farms, and limits on farm size managed underthe mineral input registration system. The various quotasystems that have been implemented have proven costly forindustry and the public sector alike, but have preventedlivestock numbers and related pollution problems fromincreasing further. Ever stricter limits on the applicationof manure to soil, for example, have imposed costs but shownpositive results. Applications of manure nitrogen decreasedfrom 447 kg per ha in 1980 to 326 kg per ha in 2010, andapplications of manure phosphate decreased from 160 kg perha to 84 kg per ha over the same period. Dutch manuremanagement policies have generally increased farmers’incentives to seek valuable uses of manure. The costs ofmanure policy to the public sector have also been relativelyhigh, with monitoring, enforcement, and registrationaveraging around 900 euro per farm per year. Part of theeffectiveness of Dutch manure policy has been owed to itsincrementalism. Restrictive measures have generally beendesigned to increase in stringency over time and allowedindustry to adapt. Dutch manure policy has, however, costthe life of many of the country’s less-efficient farms. Thenumber of pig farms in the Netherlands decreased from 34,000in 1984 to 5,000 in 2015. Lessons learned include theeffectiveness of gradually tightening standards, usingcombinations of sticks and carrots, and regularly evaluatingpolicies. Promising approaches include the coupling of landand animals, and manure processing.
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