BSW on agriculture

The BSW wants to reduce the administrative burden on farms and forestry businesses. Farm subsidies are to become simpler, and data should no longer be collected several times.

The BSW wants less paperwork for farmers and forest businesses. They should report their data only once. Getting farm support money should be easier. Farmers should have more freedom in how they work.

The program takes proposals from the German Farmers' Association and the conference of agriculture ministers as its starting point. Administrative processes are to be reorganized so that duplicate record-keeping disappears. Rules on crop rotation, set-aside land, and minimum soil cover are named as examples to simplify. Digitalization should help farms rather than add to their load. Farms should also get more flexibility depending on how the growing season develops, in coordination with the authorities. The BSW also calls for long-term legal certainty so that investments can be planned.

The BSW wants to ease the burden on livestock farms and support them more strongly through a master plan. For species such as wolves, beavers, and cormorants it considers wildlife management necessary, along with financial compensation for affected farms.

The BSW wants to help farmers with animals more. There should be a big plan for this in Saxony. Wolves, beavers, and cormorants cause damage for some farms. These farms should get money for that.

According to the program, heavy burdens have pushed animal production to countries with lower animal welfare standards. Those burdens are to be reduced. The BSW attributes the return of certain species to EU environmental policy. Where farms suffer economic harm, compensation is to be guaranteed and current support checked for whether it is enough.

The BSW wants to reform the land market so that farmland goes first to local farmers. No more agricultural land is to be sealed over.

The BSW wants new rules for buying farmland. Local farmers should get the land first. Investors should not speculate with it. Farmland should no longer be built over.

The program observes that investors in Saxony are increasingly buying into farms or taking them over completely. Besides price pressure, it names the use of farmland for solar installations as a problem. The aim of farm policy should be that Saxon farms can supply the state's population with enough food.

The BSW wants to back farms with funding programs: for selling products locally, for organic farming, for adapting to changed weather conditions, and for young farmers taking over a farm. Farming and forestry should also contribute to the energy supply.

The BSW wants the state to help farmers with money. Farmers should be able to sell their goods nearby more easily. Large kitchens should use more organic food. Young farmers should get more help when they start. There should also be money for dealing with climate change.

Organic farming is to be strengthened through better processing capacity and more organic food in large kitchens. Gentle farming techniques are to be funded without much paperwork, and agricultural research expanded. Forestry businesses and private forest owners should get help removing wood damaged by bark beetles instead of being threatened with fines. The party sees leftover wood, fuels from crops, and biogas as part of the energy mix. It also lists flowering areas on state-owned property, fast internet for farms, and more training projects for school students.