In response to a recent parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil agricultural spokesperson Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said work in relation to designating eligible areas under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme is ongoing.
“My Department has commenced work on this project, and relevant technical experts are currently sourcing and analysing the data in relation to the new criteria,” Creed said. “Officials have also been in contact with the Commission to discuss technical issues arising.”
EU regulations require all member states to implement a new system for designating eligible areas under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme from 2018 at the latest.
At present, eligible land under ANC is designated by reference to criteria such as stocking density, family farm income, population density and the percentage of the working population engaged in agriculture.
Under the new system of designation which must be introduced in 2018, eligible areas will have to be designated on the basis of biophysical criteria. The criteria set out in the legislation are:
Low temperature.Dryness.Excess soil moisture.Limited soil drainage.Unfavourable texture and stoniness.Shallow rooting depth.Poor chemical properties.Steep slope.“Once this process is complete, the draft data will provide the basis for the identification of eligible areas for ANC,” Creed said. “It is envisaged that domestic stakeholders will be consulted as this process develops.”
In a recently published report, experts from Teagasc and IT Sligo have created a map that shows the likely occurrence of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland in Ireland. This map has the potential to inform the new ANC areas of designation.
Figure 1: Likely occurrence and distribution of Higher Nature Value (HNV) farmland in each electoral division, based on a scale ranging from low (blue) to high (green). Note that non-HNV farmland may occur in areas with high likelihood of HNV farmland and vice versa.
“HNV farming is a way of describing farmland that has agricultural and environmental products, one of the key ways of measuring if the Common Agricultural Policy is delivering,” said John Finn, manager of the Identification of the Distribution and Extent of Agricultural Land of High Nature Value (IDEAL-HNV) project. “This kind of an approach would be feeding very strongly into ANCs. If you take top-down approaches like Origin Green, this underpins that.”
Finn added that the HNV areas typically are quite disadvantaged socio-economically, with the average farm income very dependent on targeted CAP payments.
“We can retrospectively see, using this map, how much money went into these areas. Other countries are doing this out on the ground but with this project we have taken the laboriousness out of it and use existing data on stocking densities and satellite imagery.”
Read more
Disadvantaged areas must be reviewed by June
In response to a recent parliamentary question from Fianna Fáil agricultural spokesperson Charlie McConalogue, Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed has said work in relation to designating eligible areas under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme is ongoing.
“My Department has commenced work on this project, and relevant technical experts are currently sourcing and analysing the data in relation to the new criteria,” Creed said. “Officials have also been in contact with the Commission to discuss technical issues arising.”
EU regulations require all member states to implement a new system for designating eligible areas under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme from 2018 at the latest.
At present, eligible land under ANC is designated by reference to criteria such as stocking density, family farm income, population density and the percentage of the working population engaged in agriculture.
Under the new system of designation which must be introduced in 2018, eligible areas will have to be designated on the basis of biophysical criteria. The criteria set out in the legislation are:
Low temperature.Dryness.Excess soil moisture.Limited soil drainage.Unfavourable texture and stoniness.Shallow rooting depth.Poor chemical properties.Steep slope.“Once this process is complete, the draft data will provide the basis for the identification of eligible areas for ANC,” Creed said. “It is envisaged that domestic stakeholders will be consulted as this process develops.”
In a recently published report, experts from Teagasc and IT Sligo have created a map that shows the likely occurrence of High Nature Value (HNV) farmland in Ireland. This map has the potential to inform the new ANC areas of designation.
Figure 1: Likely occurrence and distribution of Higher Nature Value (HNV) farmland in each electoral division, based on a scale ranging from low (blue) to high (green). Note that non-HNV farmland may occur in areas with high likelihood of HNV farmland and vice versa.
“HNV farming is a way of describing farmland that has agricultural and environmental products, one of the key ways of measuring if the Common Agricultural Policy is delivering,” said John Finn, manager of the Identification of the Distribution and Extent of Agricultural Land of High Nature Value (IDEAL-HNV) project. “This kind of an approach would be feeding very strongly into ANCs. If you take top-down approaches like Origin Green, this underpins that.”
Finn added that the HNV areas typically are quite disadvantaged socio-economically, with the average farm income very dependent on targeted CAP payments.
“We can retrospectively see, using this map, how much money went into these areas. Other countries are doing this out on the ground but with this project we have taken the laboriousness out of it and use existing data on stocking densities and satellite imagery.”
Read more
Disadvantaged areas must be reviewed by June
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