The Department of Agriculture has had to abandon its proposed minimum stocking rate for the new EU Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) as such a requirement would break WTO rules. It had intended to operate a minimum stocking rate for commonage and hill land.

This would have forced dormant shareholders who plan to use their commonage for BPS to also actively graze the ground. It would have met the EU requirement that eligible land have a farming activity on it, while also countering under-grazing of commonage.

However, the Department has now been told by the European Commission that a mandatory stocking density for an EU Pillar I direct payment scheme would not be in compliance with WTO rules.

This will lead to the Department revising the details of its proposed BPS and it is in ongoing discussion with the Commission on the matter. At this point, it appears that the Department will be able to operate its planned minimum stocking rates for its proposed Pillar II schemes such as Areas of Natural Constraint, GLAS, etc.

This week, Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney told the Dáil that for the BPS, each of a farmer’s agricultural parcels must have a farming activity on it.

“In the case of land farmed in common, there must be a farming activity on the parcel, but individual claimants are not obliged to carry out the farming activity provided that some of the claimants on the commonage are doing so,” he said in reply to a question from Galway west TD Éamon Ó Cuív.

It is now possible that farmers who own commonage but no longer graze it will be able to declare it for BPS, as long as some other farmer(s) graze sheep or cattle on the commonage and maintain it in good condition.