Almost 1,700 livestock farmers have applied for one of several voluntary buyout schemes put in place to cut nitrogen compound emissions, the agriculture ministry has said.

The scheme for peak polluters near Natura 2000 areas, who have been offered 120% of the value of their farm, attracted 920 applicants. The scheme officially ran until April but was extended and dozens of farmers applied days before last Friday’s deadline.

Another buyout scheme, in which farmers get 100% of the value, closed at the beginning of this month with 665 farmers wanting to sell up.

Agriculture minister Femke Wiersma said a scheme for smaller livestock sectors attracted 104 applications but exceeded the budget. She said she will see if extra money can be made available.

Most applicants are dairy and pig farmers from Ede, Venray and Barneveld.

Wiersma has been facing increasing pressure from her coalition partners to speed up the buyout of farmers to prevent the Netherlands from falling foul of European restrictions.

The Netherlands’ exemption from EU limits on manure is due to end in 2026, meaning farmers will be allowed to spread far less animal waste on their own fields.

Not all applications have been processed yet and it is unclear how many farms will actually go.

Ger Koopmans, chairman of farmers’ organisation LTO told the AD the number of farms is meaningless without clarity about how many animals the reduction involves.

“It is completely idiotic that we are not told straightaway about how many animals we are talking about. We want answers from ministry,” he said.

Koopmans said those figures would make clear how much nitrogen pollution space would be freed up, which could then be used to help out farmers who exceed nitrogen targets and whose farms face closure.

An agriculture ministry spokeswoman confirmed that no figures were available as yet about the number of animals. “These figures only reflect the willingness among farmers to sell up,” she said.