Green plan

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The Green Plan was a funding program from the 1950s that promoted post-war agriculture in the Federal Republic of Germany . The aim was to create structures in rural areas that could be managed more easily in order to safely supply the population with food.

Starting position

Order with a 2-furrow bed plow

Due to inheritance in real division , there were many farms with small and scattered meadows, pastures and fields in some federal states such as Hesse and Baden-Württemberg . These were traditionally tilled with horses and oxen. There was a lack of agricultural machinery. The sales situation for agricultural products should also be improved. Under the slogan “Farmer can be whoever wants to be a farmer”, as many farms as possible should be preserved, including farms that were actually not economically competitive. In addition, the CDU under Konrad Adenauer wanted to use this reform to bind the CDU-related clientele. The Agriculture Act of 1955 was supposed to ensure this, not least through the introduction of subsidies. Nevertheless, many businesses had to be closed in the following years due to a lack of profitability.

activities

1957 beet harvest

Subsidies were introduced for grain, milk and meat. Farmers were guaranteed high sales proceeds. A land consolidation was carried out, in which the small, fragmented plots were reorganized, the landscape was radically restructured, hedges cut down, orchards converted into plantations and streams straightened . Farmers received grants to replace draft animals with tractors and combine harvesters.

The standard of living in the country was below that in the city. Here was infrastructure such as electricity and sewage connections created, also an old-age assistance for farmers and the possibility of training in other professions for a later generation, was for the family in no place.

consequences

The agricultural subsidies subsequently led to overproduction of agricultural goods. A mountain of butter was created. The land consolidation measures led to ecological problems. Ecosystems were destroyed by these measures. In order to remedy these negative consequences, streams were later renatured and orchards were then promoted.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The "Green Plan". In: Planet Knowledge. August 24, 2010, accessed December 24, 2013.
  2. ↑ Green Plan II. In: Die Welt. March 1, 2013, accessed December 24, 2013.
  3. ↑ "Green Plan" at the crossroads. In: The time. No. 51, December 20, 1956, accessed December 24, 2013.

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