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Thousands of Dutch farmers are heading to The Hague, many driving in slow-moving convoys of tractors that snarled traffic in the morning rush hour, for a national day of protest to demand more respect for their profession. The Dutch motorists association, ANWB, reported that Tuesday was the busiest ever morning on the nation's roads, with more than 1000 kilometres of traffic jams blamed on convoys of tractors, bad weather and accidents. Organisers of the protest said on their website that they want to counter the "negative image" of farming in the Netherlands. They said, "we are not animal abusers and environment polluters, we have a heart for our businesses". Agriculture Minister Carola Schouten is scheduled to address the farmers in the early afternoon. According to the Dutch farmers' organisation, LTO, exports from nearly 54,000 farms and other agricultural businesses were worth 90.3 billion euros ($A146 billion) last year. However, while farmers are a cornerstone of the Dutch economy, the sector also is blamed for pollution and emissions, and animal rights activists accuse farmers of keeping too many animals on their land. Among the farmers' demands are that the government does not further reduce the number of animals they can keep and that an "independent party" measures farms' carbon and nitrogen emissions. An advisory commission last week recommended that the government buy out old and inefficient farms as a way of reducing nitrogen emissions. Police sealed off roads heading into The Hague's historic centre and arrested one farmer for driving his tractor through a metal fence surrounding the protest site and another for interfering with the arrest. Cattle farmer Peter Boogards drove his tractor from the nearby village of Wassenaar to express his anger. "We're the only sector that has managed to reduce phosphate production by 20 per cent," he said. "Nobody listens to us, while we stick to agreements. We don't like that." Australian Associated Press

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