A hugely positive response from farmers to the National Liming Programme (NLP) has been heralded by Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue as a huge success.

Over 41,000 farmers applied before the programme’s closing date of 20 April 2023. The high level of applications is described by Minister McConalogue as a show of environmental strength by farmers but it is leaving him and his Department with a headache to see how best to manage approvals.

The average volume of lime requested for grant aid was recorded at 111t per applicant, bringing the total volume of lime sought to over 4.5m tonnes. This is far in excess of the 500,000t allocated in the NLP budget of €8m (€16/t). The Department of Agriculture reports that were all applications received to be approved and submitted for a payment claim, it would require €72m to fund the programme.

Number crunching

The Irish Farmers Journal understands there is an appetite to seek additional funding to increase the level of funding allocated but that there is a low level of expectation, with nine times the funding required. Reports indicate that the Department has started crunching numbers and assessing several options to see how best to now progress.

The Department has confirmed that due to the unprecedented level of demand for the NLP, approvals will need to be limited to stay within the allocated budget. The terms and conditions of the scheme state that: “In the event of eligible applications being received in excess of the available budget, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine may implement a reduction coefficient to determine the tonnage of ground limestone approved for each applicant as appropriate.”

This condition leaves plenty of options for the Department to consider.

Possible options

If a straight reduction coefficient was to be administered reducing the allocation of every applicant, it would likely result in a significant number of applicants who are seeking lower volumes of lime, say 20t to 40t for example, being excluded.

This is due to the high average figure of 111t which insinuates that a considerable number of applicants must have applied for the maximum application rate of 200t. Such a move would be straightforward to implement but the downside of this option is excluding smaller-sized holdings in favour of larger units.

Another option some farmers have queried is the possibility of allocating a certain volume of lime to every farmer and then applying the coefficient thereafter. This is not a runner, however, in the absence of significantly increasing the funds allocated.

The reasoning is that if every one of the 41,000 applicants were to receive some allocation, it would result in just 12t being allocated to every farmer, which would not be realistic given that the typical load of lime delivered is in the region of 20t to 24t.

There have also been suggestions raised that many farmers may have sought a certain volume of lime in the absence of eligible soil analysis (maximum of four years old from date of applying for payment) and that the volume eligible to apply could be significantly lower.

Progressing down such an avenue of awarding claims on the back of soil analysis would be an administrative nightmare for the matter, particularly in an era where the rollout of new schemes is already inserting huge pressure on available resources. As such, this option is near to impossible to see materialising.

At this moment in time the most realistic outcome is a combination of the level of funding available hopefully being increased along with a reduction coefficient being implemented.

Swift resolution

The Department of Agriculture has told the Irish Farmers Journal that “each successful applicant will be contacted directly by the Department in the coming weeks, outlining the quantity of lime they are eligible to receive aid on”.

It is important that the option selected is communicated quickly to prevent knock-on delays in farmers ordering lime and a potential bottleneck down the line. Lime suppliers and contractors report that this week’s announcement looks likely to pause some planned expenditure on lime.

Some are worried that if an announcement is not forthcoming it could create logistical challenges if a sufficient lead-in time is not present to increase production accordingly.

The Department of Agriculture reports that the annual tonnage of lime applied nationally in recent years, including on farms ineligible under the scheme (due to stocking rate, eco scheme selection etc), has ranged from 700,000t to 1.3m tonne.

Environmental strength

Minister McConalogue said: “The innovative and pioneering National Liming Programme has been a huge success and underlines clearly how engaged farmers are in soil fertility and reducing their chemical fertiliser usage. I very much welcome how farmers have engaged with this new programme and the fact applications are well ahead of farming norms – this is a tremendous show of environmental strength by farmers. I want to see how best we can step this forward to ensure as much lime as possible can be spread this year.”