Agrarian land law in The Netherlands.

The Netherlands is a small and densely populated country. In an area of a little more than 4 million ha live 15 million inhabitants. Half of the total area of the Netherlands is cultivated land (1.1 million ha are used for grassland, 0.8 million ha for arable farming, and 0.1 million ha for horticulture). Although farmers make up less than 6% of the Dutch working population, agriculture contributes approximately 25% to the annual exports and so considerably to the Dutch economy. The Netherlands has an intensive agricultural industry that produces for consumption at home and abroad. As a result the Dutch have to share their country with some 14 million pigs, 4.7 million cattle, and 93 million chickens. This gives rise to a serious environmental problem (see section IVC). As a result of Holland's high population density the Dutch countryside is the site of intense competition between conflicting interests, such as urbanization and industrialization, infrastructure developments, outdoor recreation, nature conservation and of course agriculture. During the 1970s the annual loss of farmland to other purposes was about 10000 ha; during more recent years, about 5000 ha. So the Dutch have to be careful with their land. They have adopted stringent measures to control the allocation of land for different purposes in a system of physical planning (see section II).