Plans for a new framework to deliver support to NI farmers during times of crisis have been outlined to MLAs.

“The proposed framework will enable the department to assess the risks quickly and determine the most appropriate measures to stabilise the industry,” said Richard Johnston from DAERA.

Speaking to Stormont’s agriculture committee last Thursday, Johnston said “trigger points” have been proposed which will help define when a crisis requires government intervention.

“This includes a fall in market price in a particular sector outside the range of normal market fluctuations,” he said.

However, Johnston was clear that the need to deliver crisis support to farmers will not be solely based on the proposed trigger points.

“They do not and should not automatically trigger government intervention, and neither does failure to reach these thresholds necessarily preclude government intervention,” he said.

In his remarks, George Moffett from DAERA indicated that a specific crisis reserve fund will not be established for delivering extra support to NI farmers. Instead, funding for any crisis support schemes will need to go through the usual civil service process of business case approval and financial bids.

This differs to the system which was in place prior to Brexit when, under EU rules, a crisis reserve was funded by taking around 1.5% off farm payments each year.

Farmers were then reimbursed the following year if the money went unspent.

Iran war

When asked about the impact of the ongoing US-Iran war, Moffett said that the Farm Sustainability Payment should help NI farmers “manage and prepare for external shocks”.

“We will monitor things that are ongoing at the minute and, if needs be, start to pull together that crisis working group to see what else needs to be done,” he said.