CDU on agriculture

The CDU wants to make Saxony-Anhalt's agriculture the most innovative in Europe. Autonomous robots, drones, AI and new breeding techniques are to be deployed more quickly. This is meant to make farming more efficient and cheaper.

The CDU wants modern technology on the fields. Robots and drones should be easier to allow. New ways of breeding plants should help too. This should let farmers work at lower cost.

Pilot projects and demonstration farms will continue to be supported, and the state institute for agriculture and horticulture is to become a competence center. Plants only slightly modified by new techniques (category 1 NGT) should be treated legally like conventionally bred ones; related research, especially at the IPK Gatersleben institute, will continue to be funded. Farms are to receive state-held data such as land registry data free of charge on request, bundled on one platform. Training and continuing education will be adapted to new demands. Newcomers will keep receiving start-up aid, investment grants and an internship bonus; start-ups are to be supported as well.

The CDU wants to sharply limit the use of farmland for other purposes and give priority to securing high-quality soils. Rural areas should have living conditions equal to those elsewhere. Regional marketing is to be supported.

The CDU wants to protect fields and meadows. Good soil should stay farmland and not be built on. Life in villages should be as good as in cities. Products from the region should get more promotion.

The program lists soil sealing, urban sprawl, industrial sites on undeveloped land and compensation measures as forms of land take. The state's land market reserve of 20,000 hectares will be kept. Federal and EU funds are to be drawn down in full, and the agricultural offices will be strengthened for that purpose. Direct sellers and food companies should get more chances to present themselves at events such as the Green Week trade fair. Fruit and wine growing will be supported and their regions promoted for tourism.

The CDU wants to preserve livestock farming in the state and rejects any further tightening of husbandry standards. Permits for barns are to become simpler and record-keeping duties are to be reduced. Those who invest should have planning certainty.

The CDU wants farmers in the state to keep raising animals. The rules for keeping animals should not get stricter. Farmers should be able to build barns more easily. They should have less paperwork.

At the federal level, an overall strategy for livestock farming is to be pursued. In building law and barn permits, the CDU plans simplifications and a moratorium on technical standards. Grazing livestock is to receive economic support per livestock unit, also with a view to biodiversity. Record-keeping duties will be reviewed and dropped where they bring no added benefit for animal health or consumer protection.

The CDU wants to exempt farming and forestry from further increases in CO2 costs and to implement EU law without extra national requirements. Production costs, reporting duties and contributions for water maintenance are to fall. The party says the aim is fair conditions for competition.

The CDU does not want farmers to pay even more for CO2. Germany should not make stricter rules than the EU. Farmers should have less paperwork. Some fees for them should go down too.

On CO2 costs, farms are to be treated the same as energy-intensive industry. The program demands equal conditions for pesticides and fertilizers and for labor and social standards. The so-called red zones with fertilizer restrictions are to be redrawn on a polluter-pays basis, the network of measuring points expanded, and fertilizer law enforced by a single authority. The reform of water maintenance will continue with a new way of calculating contributions, and more water is to be retained across the landscape. Digital tools such as the Geobox are meant to bundle data.

For the EU's Common Agricultural Policy from 2028, the CDU wants to prevent payments to large farms from being capped or reduced on a sliding scale. It rejects cuts to the EU farm budget.

The EU pays money to farmers. New rules will apply from 2028. The CDU does not want large farms to get less money. The EU should not save money on farmers overall.

Capping means an upper limit on payments per farm, and degression means support that shrinks as farm size grows. The CDU wants the farm sector to be treated as a priority. In the EU's multiannual financial framework, the program calls for an adequate share of funds for farming and forestry.

The CDU wants less food to be thrown away and wants to expand nutrition education for children and teenagers. In the platform's view, waste disrespects the work of producers. Consumer protection is also to be given more weight.

The CDU wants less food to end up in the trash. Children should learn more about healthy eating in daycare and school. The party also wants to protect consumers better. Consumers are people who buy things.

Schools and daycare centers are to receive support for teaching about healthy eating and sustainable consumption. The platform argues that wasteful handling of food devalues both the products and the work of those who produce them. The CDU considers consumer protection especially important because of digitalization, globalization and markets that are hard to see through; it is meant to build trust and guard against risks.