SPD on agriculture

The SPD wants to give agriculture planning certainty and simplify permit and record-keeping duties without lowering standards. The state is also to get its own guiding vision for farm policy.

Farmers should have less paperwork. The rules that protect nature and animals stay the same. Farmers should only have to enter data once. The state should make a shared plan together with farmers.

Farms would enter data digitally only once, and it could then be used for several procedures. Advice and support are to be expanded at all levels. The SPD wants to take up the concerns of the farmers' protests in an organized dialogue. The guiding vision is to build on the findings of the Zukunftskommission Landwirtschaft (Commission on the Future of Agriculture), take the state's particular structures into account and be drawn up together with those affected.

The SPD wants young farmers and people starting farms to get easier access to land, as many farm handovers are coming up. To that end, the state land company (Landgesellschaft) is to be strengthened. Federally owned BVVG land is to come under state responsibility in the long term.

Many farms will soon get new owners. Young farmers should get land more easily. A state-owned company should provide land for this. Land owned by the federal government should later be managed by the state.

The SPD regards all types and sizes of farms as equal. Tools for fair allocation of land are to be developed further. The rules for managing BVVG land, formerly state-owned East German land now held by the federal government, are to be reviewed together with the federal government. The aims are more regional control and decisions made locally.

The SPD wants to keep EU farm funding at its current level and pay farms for services to the environment, climate and animal welfare in a way that adds to their income. Crop farming is to be adapted to climate change.

Farmers get money from the EU. The SPD wants the amount to stay the same. Farmers who protect nature, climate and animals should earn money for it. Crop growing should cope better with heat and drought.

Within the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), permanent grassland and organic farming are to be supported and funds distributed regionally, along with agroforestry and field margin projects. Support would go to varied crop rotations, humus building, cover crops, and horticulture and wine growing. Research on varieties that withstand heat, drought and new pests is to be stepped up. The state institute for agriculture and horticulture would be adequately funded, and the state winery would be kept. Farms are to get relief for erosion protection measures.

The SPD wants to fund the conversion of livestock farming, combining animal welfare with economic prospects for farms. Regional slaughtering and marketing are to receive funding again so that animal transports become shorter.

Farm animals should live better. Farmers should get money for better barns. There should be more slaughterhouses nearby again. Then animals do not have to travel so far. Dairy farmers should get fixed contracts.

The SPD backs the demand that producers and dairies must fix quantity, price and duration by contract before the milk is delivered. Pasture-based livestock farming is to be supported; the platform calls grazing indispensable for biodiversity. A statewide animal health strategy is to be drawn up, and the One Health approach, which looks at human, animal and plant health together, is to become a guiding principle. Small-animal breeding clubs are to get funding with little paperwork.

The SPD wants to convert the state's forests into permanent forests that can withstand climate change. The state forestry enterprise is to get more staff and expertise. Hunting law and wildfire protection are to be adapted accordingly.

The SPD wants to change the forests. The forests should cope better with heat and drought. The state forestry service should get more staff. Protection against forest fires should also improve.

The program calls for recognizing and paying for the environmental services that forests provide. Owners of very small forest plots are to get help managing them. Game populations are to be regulated so that forest conversion can succeed, based on an overall wildlife ecology plan. The SPD wants to revise the state hunting law in dialogue with forestry, hunting, farming and conservation groups. Wildfire prevention, an emergency fund and coordinated response structures are to be set up or expanded.

The SPD wants to preserve the state's agricultural schools and university institutions and fund them adequately. Vocational training is to be strengthened and its content updated. The reasoning given is that only well-trained farmers can handle future challenges.

The SPD wants to strengthen training for farming. Schools and universities for farming should get enough money. There should be more teachers. Every farm should have fast internet.

A plan is to be drawn up for recruiting new teachers for vocational training. The inter-company training center for animal husbandry in Iden is to grow into a center of excellence. The program regards the state's agricultural research institutes as necessary for getting research results into practice. Every farm is to have a high-capacity internet connection, because digital and AI-supported methods depend on it. Associations such as rural women, rural youth, anglers, hunters and small-animal breeders are to keep receiving support.