Stakeholders including all farm organisations, processor bodies and political parties took part in a CAP consultation conference this Wednesday in Co Kildare. Chairing the session, Department of Agriculture secretary general Aidan O'Driscoll said this was a chance to "influence Ireland's position" as EU countries now enter months of talks with the European Commission and Parliament on initial proposals made in recent weeks to operate the CAP between 2021 and 2027.
Priorities
Reversing proposed budget cuts is the first priority for the IFA and ICOS.
"We want to give the minister and the Government cross-party support so that there won't be a cent drop in the budget for Irish Farmers," IFA president Joe Healy told the Irish Farmers Journal, adding that the 5% CAP budget cut proposed by the European Commission would translate to more than 15% once inflation was factored in.
Without the budget we have nothing
"Without the budget we have nothing," added ICOS chief executive TJ Flanagan.
"Real simplification" was top of the agenda for the ICSA. Its president Patrick Kent also called for CAP funding to be refocused away from "side projects such as LEADER" to benefit farmers, including providing a living income for drystock farmers as "BDGP doesn't seem to be delivering".
This should happen through better valuation of the grass-fed, residue-free products which are currently "dumped on supermarket shelves", he added.
Farm succession
Macra's priority is to ensure more incentives for generational renewal – a priority identified by the European Commission in its initial proposals.
"What we need is a set of concrete proposals that will encourage young farmers to go into agriculture but also allow older farmers to step back," said Macra's agriculture affairs manager Derrie Dillon. This includes building on the young farmer top-up on the direct payments side, and introducing rural development schemes such as start-up and succession packages as well as financial instruments to help with access to credit.
Irish Grain Growers group chair Bobby Miller said the existing protein coupled payments "pays dividends for farmers" and called for similar targeted payments to help increase domestic feed production and in turn full traceability of Irish livestock products.
Listen to Bobby Miller in our podcast below:
Read more on political positions concerning the imposition of a maximum payment ceiling in this week's Irish Farmers Journal.
Read more
Macra: CAP must define the active farmer
CAP 2020 will be divisive: seven slides to understand
Stakeholders including all farm organisations, processor bodies and political parties took part in a CAP consultation conference this Wednesday in Co Kildare. Chairing the session, Department of Agriculture secretary general Aidan O'Driscoll said this was a chance to "influence Ireland's position" as EU countries now enter months of talks with the European Commission and Parliament on initial proposals made in recent weeks to operate the CAP between 2021 and 2027.
Priorities
Reversing proposed budget cuts is the first priority for the IFA and ICOS.
"We want to give the minister and the Government cross-party support so that there won't be a cent drop in the budget for Irish Farmers," IFA president Joe Healy told the Irish Farmers Journal, adding that the 5% CAP budget cut proposed by the European Commission would translate to more than 15% once inflation was factored in.
Without the budget we have nothing
"Without the budget we have nothing," added ICOS chief executive TJ Flanagan.
"Real simplification" was top of the agenda for the ICSA. Its president Patrick Kent also called for CAP funding to be refocused away from "side projects such as LEADER" to benefit farmers, including providing a living income for drystock farmers as "BDGP doesn't seem to be delivering".
This should happen through better valuation of the grass-fed, residue-free products which are currently "dumped on supermarket shelves", he added.
Farm succession
Macra's priority is to ensure more incentives for generational renewal – a priority identified by the European Commission in its initial proposals.
"What we need is a set of concrete proposals that will encourage young farmers to go into agriculture but also allow older farmers to step back," said Macra's agriculture affairs manager Derrie Dillon. This includes building on the young farmer top-up on the direct payments side, and introducing rural development schemes such as start-up and succession packages as well as financial instruments to help with access to credit.
Irish Grain Growers group chair Bobby Miller said the existing protein coupled payments "pays dividends for farmers" and called for similar targeted payments to help increase domestic feed production and in turn full traceability of Irish livestock products.
Listen to Bobby Miller in our podcast below:
Read more on political positions concerning the imposition of a maximum payment ceiling in this week's Irish Farmers Journal.
Read more
Macra: CAP must define the active farmer
CAP 2020 will be divisive: seven slides to understand
SHARING OPTIONS