The much-anticipated new REPS-style scheme is one step closer to reaching farmers after Budget 2021.
A total of €79m has been set aside to deliver new agri-environmental and other farm support measures next year. The lion’s share of this fund will be used to deliver a pilot REPS-style scheme.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue’s headline priorities were to secure a rollover of vital existing farm schemes and put a concrete shape around the “flagship agri-environmental scheme”. Tuesday’s budget delivered on both.
There will be extensions for broad-reaching schemes such as GLAS and ANC, which deliver in the region of €450m to farmers. Sector-specific schemes will also be extended, with €40m for BDGP and €17m for the Sheep Welfare Scheme.
These schemes are crucial in underpinning farm incomes, particularly those in the drystock sector.
On Tuesday, Minister McConalogue said it was his priority to ensure the transition between CAP programmes “did not result in any gap in funding for farmers”.
It was an acknowledgement of comments made in November 2019 when, as a spokesperson on agriculture, McConalogue said: “We need to get away from the pattern that involves farmers being unable to enter new schemes for gap periods of two or three years after these five-year agreements come to an end.”
Good news
There is good news for those farmers outside of existing agri-environmental schemes. They will have priority access to the pilot REPS.
Some €20m of the funding for the pilot will come from carbon taxes. The remainder will be additional spending rather than a reallocation of existing funds.
There have also been tentative signs of what the scheme will look like. The funds will be used to create “an innovative, results-based pilot scheme for farmers who improve the biodiversity and carbon management of their land”.
Read more
Budget 2021: everything farmers need to know
Budget 2021: REPS scheme one step closer
The much-anticipated new REPS-style scheme is one step closer to reaching farmers after Budget 2021.
A total of €79m has been set aside to deliver new agri-environmental and other farm support measures next year. The lion’s share of this fund will be used to deliver a pilot REPS-style scheme.
Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue’s headline priorities were to secure a rollover of vital existing farm schemes and put a concrete shape around the “flagship agri-environmental scheme”. Tuesday’s budget delivered on both.
There will be extensions for broad-reaching schemes such as GLAS and ANC, which deliver in the region of €450m to farmers. Sector-specific schemes will also be extended, with €40m for BDGP and €17m for the Sheep Welfare Scheme.
These schemes are crucial in underpinning farm incomes, particularly those in the drystock sector.
On Tuesday, Minister McConalogue said it was his priority to ensure the transition between CAP programmes “did not result in any gap in funding for farmers”.
It was an acknowledgement of comments made in November 2019 when, as a spokesperson on agriculture, McConalogue said: “We need to get away from the pattern that involves farmers being unable to enter new schemes for gap periods of two or three years after these five-year agreements come to an end.”
Good news
There is good news for those farmers outside of existing agri-environmental schemes. They will have priority access to the pilot REPS.
Some €20m of the funding for the pilot will come from carbon taxes. The remainder will be additional spending rather than a reallocation of existing funds.
There have also been tentative signs of what the scheme will look like. The funds will be used to create “an innovative, results-based pilot scheme for farmers who improve the biodiversity and carbon management of their land”.
Read more
Budget 2021: everything farmers need to know
Budget 2021: REPS scheme one step closer
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