Capacity has to be provided in time for all interested ACRES farmers, even those who have not yet applied, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Martin Heydon has said.

The Minister said that the initial challenges are in relation to logistics and processing applications, as they are now all coming at once.

"There are a lot of farmers who haven't applied and aren't part of that 46,000 and we have to provide capacity for them in time.

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"Budgetary discussions will be one element to this, but there's also the physical capacity logistics that's a challenge for us, making sure that our system can work right.

"Farmers always take for granted that our computer systems work well," he said.

Extension

The two-year extension to the CAP and the fact that everyone is finishing up in GLAS at the end of this year has proved challenging, putting a lot of pressure on the system, he said.

"You have 46,000 farmers who have confounded some commentary by entering into a new agri environmental scheme as soon as we produced it.

"They've shown a huge level of ambition, which is very much to be commended, it doesn't surprise me, but I still think it's a great problem to have," he said.

However, he said that now the challenge is to see how best to meet the farmers' ambitions by overcoming the initial constraints of everyone trying to get in at the one time.

Advisers

The minister said that he would like to commend advisers who were put under " huge pressure" by the nature of having to have plans submitted and getting so many farmers in.

"They really stood up to the plate and the two-week extension was very much needed," he said.

Speaking at the promotion of Grennans’ sustainability of Irish farming billboard campaign in Birr on Thursday, he said that they are promoting the positive impact that agriculture has on rural communities.

On 4 October, the midlands feed merchant launched the campaign on the M7 between Kill and Naas to highlight the environmental credential of Irish farms.

'Promote Irish farming to decrease global warming' is what the billboard reads.

Grennans said they were prompted to inform the public of the challenge of a 25% emissions cut in light of growing customer concerns.

Minister Heydon said: "Grennans are speaking about the positive impact that agriculture has on rural communities. They are employing 150 people in rural Offaly, that's massive economic activity.

Protecting production

"While agriculture is worth a little over 6% of our national economy, in rural areas like Offaly it's worth more than double that, up near 14% and 15%," he said.

Protecting our food production system, the minister added, is so important at a time when the world needs nutrient-dense good-quality food.

“Those high-value markets that we want to be in and want to stay and grow our market share of, have higher level of climate ambition.

"So the smart thing for farmers is to have ambitious targets on the climate side, improve our biodiversity and water quality, while still producing that top-quality food,” he said.