Irish tillage farmers will be exempt from the requirement for full annual crop rotation under changes included in the redrafted Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan.

It had been feared that tillage farmers would have to fully rotate crops under the original CAP proposals, which came from Brussels.

However, the updated CAP plan, which was submitted to the European Commission last week, significantly dilutes the requirement on tillage farmers to rotate crops.

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Requirements

The amended requirements stipulate that under Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAEC) 7:

  • Farmers with more than 50ha of tillage land will have to rotate the crop grown on individual parcels once every four years.
  • Farmers with between 10ha and 50ha will largely be exempt from rotating crops, as long as they practice crop diversification and adhere to the three-crop rule.
  • Farmers with over 50% of their tillage area sown to barley can also be exempt from the requirement for rotation.

    • Alternative

    As an alternative to the rotation and diversification obligations in the redrafted GAEC 7, farmers can sow more than 50% of their tillage area to catch crops annually, but all land must be sown to at least one catch crop in a four-year period.