The EU Commission will this year amend its definition of an active farmer for the purpose of its direct payment schemes.

The rules around qualification as an active farmer are important as it decides who is eligible for payment under a long list of schemes ranging from Basic/Greening Payment to GLAS and ANC.

Since the start of the Common Agricultural Policy the EU has always attempted to direct payments to active farm families.

For example the active farmer rules decide whether eligibility goes to landowners or farmers renting land, to limited companies and partnerships as well as sole traders.

This week EU Farm Commissioner Phil Hogan announced that he was amending EU legislation to allow Member States to decide their own definition of an active farmer.

Let each country decide

He said: “The best thing to do is to leave it to the country themselves to define the best definition. It’s a badly needed reform and that is what we are doing.”

It was therefore up to Ireland – the Minister for Agriculture and his Department officials – to define an active farmer from the end of this year, he said.

Hogan made his comments when delivering the keynote speech at the launch of Mountbellew Agricultural College’s strategic development plan.

Listen to "Phil Hogan on the next moves on CAP, including the definition of active farmers" on Spreaker.