IFA Says New Environment Scheme Unworkable For Farmers

Business & Finance - Farming & Fisheries

Sunday, 21 March 2010 01:00

Written by Mark Dunphy

IFA President John Bryan has called on the Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith to immediately intervene with his officials, as the proposed new Agri-Environment Scheme now being put forward by the Department of Agriculture is unworkable and does not meet farmers expectations.

IFA is now seeking an immediate meeting with Minister Smith as he must come forward with a more workable scheme compared to the flawed one that is currently on the table. Mr. Bryan said that as it now stands that the proposed scheme will not deliver for farmers, the environment or the rural economy and the Minister must now take steps to come forward with a more meaningful scheme. The promised €50m for the scheme in 2010 will not be taken up, as the vast majority of farmers will not be interested.

“The scheme must be practical and farmers must be in a position to secure payments which reflect their input into the environmental works being carried out. It is clear that the scheme is too cumbersome and lacks credibility”, he said.

The IFA President said that the Minister cannot preside over a situation where Ireland through the REPS scheme was the model for the implementation of the agri-environmental measures to a position of introducing a scheme, which will not be taken up due to the restrictive measures that must be undertaken. Mr. Bryan said renegotiation with Brussels should be considered if changes are not made. Funding for this new scheme mainly comes from modulated funds deducted from the Single Farm Payment scheme and farmers will not sit idly by where money deducted is being used to such ill effect.

Speaking following a meeting with the Department of Agriculture on the new specifications IFA Rural Development Chairman Tom Turley said that from IFA analysis, many farms will struggle to get any reasonable payment. The scheme as designed will impact negatively on many small and medium sized farms who were involved in REPS over many years. The proposed scheme will only benefit those who are anxious to let their farms run wild rather than carrying out agricultural activity.

Mr. Turley said that a number of changes are required to the scheme. These include an all-farm payment to recognise the input of the farmer into the agri-environment measure as well as more flexibility under the various options. This can be done through changes to the specification, which are too rigid to make the scheme in any way attractive to farmers.