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Hanover (dpa / lni) - Agriculture Minister Barbara Otte-Kinast (CDU) and Environment Minister Olaf Lies (SPD) faced farmers in Hanover on Monday who are protesting against fertilizer restrictions.
Since Sunday around ten farmers from the Land Creates Connection (LsV) initiative have been holding a vigil with their tractors between the two ministries.
They protest against what they consider to be a poorly justified designation of the so-called red areas, in which special restrictions apply to protect the groundwater from too much nitrate.
The farmers want the actual state of the groundwater on site to be taken into account in a comprehensible manner.
Greater regionalization, a better polluter pays principle and flexible implementation in different regions are necessary.
Minister Otte-Kinast explained to the farmers that the fertilizer rules adopted in the federal states under pressure from the EU to protect groundwater are now being assessed in Brussels.
Then one can see whether further changes are possible to the Lower Saxony fertilizer ordinance.
Many farmers find that Lower Saxony places more areas under special protection than necessary.
After the last adjustment, 30 percent of the agricultural area in Lower Saxony is classified as red areas contaminated with fertilizers, previously it was 39 percent.
At the same time, however, the use of fertilizers in agriculture is being further restricted.
The new regulation focuses primarily on the companies that are responsible for excessively high nitrate levels.
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© dpa-infocom, dpa: 210125-99-165766 / 2