FDP on agriculture

The FDP wants to keep good agricultural soil from being covered with solar installations on a large scale. It cites food security and wants to change the Hessian regulation on ground-mounted solar plants.

Our food grows on fields. The FDP does not want too many solar plants on good fields. So it wants to change a state rule. The rule should say which land is used first. The FDP also wants research on farming in stacked layers.

The state's regulation on ground-mounted solar plants would be adjusted with regard to expansion targets and would rank available land by priority. The plan is part of a package through which the FDP wants to reduce the loss of valuable soil to construction and sealing. This also includes carrying out compensation measures on the building site itself where possible, so less farmland is lost. The FDP wants more research and pilot projects on vertical farming.

The FDP wants to write food security into the state constitution as a state objective and treat it as equal to climate, animal and environmental protection. Farmers should face no further restrictions, and the duty to leave cropland fallow would be suspended permanently.

The FDP wants enough food to be a goal in Hesse's constitution. Farmers should run their farms themselves. They should no longer have to leave fields empty. The FDP wants to review the target for more organic land. Organic farming should grow as customers buy it.

The platform points to a tight global supply situation and to Hesse's good growing conditions. In the FDP's view, agricultural policy measures have reduced what farms can produce. The outgoing state government's goal of farming a quarter of the land organically by 2025 would be reassessed, with organic farming following demand. Producers, processors and food retailers would be linked up to build new value chains. Farms' services for climate, biodiversity, water and landscape would be paid for through viable business models.

The FDP wants to keep livestock farming in Hesse and enable farms to invest in better animal welfare. To that end, the agricultural investment funding program would be raised substantially.

People want animals in barns to be treated well. That costs farmers money. The FDP wants to give them more funding. They can then build better barns. Meat and milk should keep coming from Hesse.

The increased funding would focus on digital technology and on building and converting barns to higher animal-welfare standards. The FDP wants to strengthen the production, processing and marketing of animal products and prevent production from retreating further from Hesse. It calls for clear requirements for investments and a funding and financing concept. Scientists would develop indicators for each species so that animal-appropriate husbandry can be checked objectively.

The FDP wants to review which areas count as nitrate-polluted under the Fertilizer Ordinance and distinguish more by who causes the pollution. It considers modern crop protection products indispensable and relies on digital technology for greater efficiency.

In some areas, farmers may use only a little fertilizer. These are called Red Areas. The FDP wants to check these areas again. Only those who pollute the water should face strict rules. Farmers should have enough products against pests. Drones and sensors should help with fertilizing.

Fertilizing should continue to be measured by what crops actually need at a given site. The FDP wants to help farms use nutrients efficiently and avoid losses; sensors, drone and satellite data, and the linking of yield maps, weather forecasts and soil analyses are meant to help. For crop protection, a sufficiently broad range of approved active substances should remain available to prevent resistance. The platform sees precision agriculture and smart farming as levers for combining environmental and climate protection, animal welfare and profitability.

The FDP wants to use modern biotechnological breeding methods such as CRISPR/Cas in crop farming. It rejects blanket bans and calls for modernizing European genetic engineering law.

The FDP wants to allow new ways of breeding plants. One of them is the gene tool CRISPR/Cas. It can change plant genes in a targeted way. The FDP is against general bans. The EU rules on genetic engineering should be updated.

The platform sees new breeding methods as key to crop farming. They are meant to allow more sparing use of pesticides and keep yields stable as the climate changes. New technologies should be assessed on the facts and without a predetermined outcome. EU genetic engineering law should be revised.

The FDP wants to make farm subsidy programs easier to understand and cut the effort needed to apply. Funding should follow factual goals, not the method of production or the size of the farm.

The FDP wants to make farm funding simpler. A website should explain all programs. Small and large farms should be treated the same. The type of farming should not matter either. Young people should be able to do a voluntary year on a farm.

An online platform is planned that explains program content, contacts and formal requirements. New programs should be effective and cause little work for applicants and the administration. Support goes to animal welfare, biodiversity and environmentally friendly technology. Specialties and products with protected origin should get more support. The FDP also calls for a Voluntary Agricultural Year modeled on the existing voluntary social and ecological years.

The FDP wants to reorganize food safety inspections in Hesse. High-risk businesses, wholesalers and central warehouses would be inspected by the Regierungspräsidien (regional state authorities) instead of local governments.

The FDP wants better checks on food. Today local governments do the checks. The FDP says many checks do not happen. So state offices should check the risky businesses. A team of experts should help.

The platform argues that almost every second mandatory inspection does not take place and that local authorities seem overwhelmed. One regional authority would take the lead and organize the inspections. It would get a team of food chemists, veterinarians and specialized lawyers. That team would assess and penalize violations in technical and legal terms.

The FDP wants to create an online portal for Hessian agriculture that links public data with farms' own data. It is meant to simplify work processes and make funding applications easy.

The FDP wants a website for farmers in Hesse. There they find data on weather, soil and maps. They can also apply for funding there. This should save them work.

The portal would combine public sensor and geodata with farms' own data from drones or barn sensors; this data could be shared with others if desired. New methods would be tested and spread through experimental fields and "farm innovation hubs." More digital continuing education in rural areas is meant to prevent people from moving away and make specialization easier. Vocational training would reflect the digital transformation more strongly.