AfD on agriculture

The AfD wants to fund farming in the state, raise self-sufficiency in products such as fruit and vegetables, and reduce paperwork for farmers. Agricultural policy is to become more independent of the EU. The program justifies this with food security in times of crisis.

The AfD wants to give farmers in the state more money. Germany should grow more of its own fruit and vegetables. Farmers should have less paperwork. The EU should have less say over farming.

The program backs both conventional and organic farming and livestock keeping. In the AfD's view, documentation duties, funding applications and proof-of-use reports paralyze farms; it relies on farmers' expertise. Germany should not become dependent on food imports. The six Dienstleistungszentren Ländlicher Raum (rural service centers) are to become more attractive employers through less bureaucracy and a more practical focus. The center for steep-slope viticulture is to be secured permanently, and tourism marketing through farming and winegrowing is to be expanded.

The AfD wants to push at the federal level for agricultural diesel to be fully tax-free and for the refund for 2024 and 2025 to be granted in full retroactively. Other charges on fuel, such as the carbon levy, are to be dropped as well. This is meant to relieve farms and strengthen their competitiveness.

Farmers need a lot of diesel for their machines. The AfD wants them to pay no tax on it. Farmers should get money back for 2024 and 2025. The carbon charge on fuel should also go.

According to the program, farmers nationwide lose out on 485 million euros because the refund is only to return from 2026. The AfD wants the refund for 2024 and 2025 approved in full retroactively. A full tax exemption would make the current refund procedure unnecessary. The program expects more stable food prices because lower energy costs could offset price increases elsewhere.

The AfD wants to support young farmers and winegrowers with a state bonus when they take over a farm, in order to preserve family farms. A voluntary agricultural year is also meant to attract new people to the sector.

Many farms cannot find someone to take over. The AfD wants to give young farmers and winegrowers money when they take over a farm. Young people should be able to work on a farm for one year as volunteers. That way they can try out the job.

The program describes the handover between generations as a problem for many farms and says more than 5,000 have closed in 15 years. The voluntary agricultural year is to be modeled on the existing voluntary ecological year. School leavers could work on a farm for a year and find out whether training as a farmer or winegrower suits them. According to the program, rural areas benefit when farms survive, because they shape the look of villages, the cultivated landscape serves recreation, and the farms provide jobs.

The AfD calls for special federal rules on the minimum wage for seasonal farm workers and a five-month rule so they can work on farms for longer. This is meant above all to protect small farms from high labor costs.

Farms often hire workers just for one season. The minimum wage applies to them. The AfD wants separate wage rules for these workers. They should also be allowed to work for up to five months.

The program argues that the uniform minimum wage hits labor-intensive sectors especially hard where productivity per worker can hardly be increased. Small farms are to be protected from labor costs that the AfD sees as a threat to their survival. Seasonal workers are to be employable for longer and with fewer formalities. The program says low-intensity farms and part-time farmers are most at risk, and that these offer consumers farm shops and regional food.

The AfD wants to simplify the approval of pesticides in Germany, reform the EU pesticide regulation and thoroughly slim down the Düngeverordnung (fertilizer ordinance). Farmers are to decide on use themselves according to good professional practice. The program expects reliable harvests and stable prices as a result.

Farmers protect their plants with sprays and fertilize their fields. There are many rules for this. The AfD wants to make these rules simpler. New products should be approved more easily. The AfD trusts what farmers know.

According to the program, no new chemical active substance has been approved in Germany since 2019, while 76 lost their approval. In the EU regulation, the practical usefulness of substances is to count for more. The AfD sees the fertilizer ordinance as mainly a bureaucratic burden; blanket limits in the so-called red areas are to be replaced by measures aimed at whoever causes the pollution. The rural service centers are also to research new application methods such as drones and train users.

The AfD wants to simplify the labeling of regional food and establish origin labeling. Imported meat is to be labeled, and farm shops are to be supported as a form of direct sales. Consumers should find it easier to see where a product comes from.

Many people want to buy food from their own region. The AfD wants simple rules for labels. The label should say where the product comes from. People should be able to spot meat from abroad. Farm shops should get support.

The program criticizes extensive documentation duties and inconsistent seals that weigh especially on small farms. With simpler rules, the AfD believes more farmers would label their goods, widening the choice. Labeling foreign meat is meant to let buyers decide knowingly, since animal welfare and husbandry standards there may be lower. The program calls farm shop sales fair trade for German farmers because no middleman takes a share.

The AfD wants to support winegrowing, especially the labor-intensive cultivation of steep slopes. It rejects blanket bans on plant protection products and wants to make drone use easier instead. The Straußenrecht (the right of winegrowers to run a seasonal tavern) is to be extended to 180 days a year.

A lot of wine grows in Rhineland-Palatinate. The AfD wants to help winegrowers. Growing wine on steep hills should get extra money. Winegrowers should be allowed to serve their own wine on 180 days a year.

The program points to the wine regions Rheinhessen, Pfalz, Mosel, Nahe, Mittelrhein and Ahr and their link to tourism. As an example of a blanket ban it rejects, it names the use of baking powder as plant protection. Drones are to apply products precisely and sparingly, backed by training and general flight permits over cultivated areas. The Straußenrecht lets winegrowers serve their own wine for part of the year in a seasonal tavern.

The AfD wants to scrap the so-called Wassercent (water cent) entirely. The charge for extracting groundwater and surface water has applied to all agriculture and forestry since 2024. In the party's view, the administrative effort is out of proportion to the revenue.

Anyone who takes water from the ground or from rivers pays money to the state. This is called the water cent. Since 2024 all farmers and foresters pay it too. The AfD wants to get rid of this charge completely.

According to the program, the charge brings the state about 30 million euros a year. Enforcing it requires more than 22 full-time positions in the state administration, and businesses must record how much water they take. The AfD rates relief from costs and bureaucracy higher than the revenue.