The Department of Agriculture is side-stepping a row over Teagasc charging farmers a membership fee to take part in a Teagasc-facilitated Knowledge Transfer (KT) group.

Teagasc had threatened to delay KT paperwork for group members who had not paid a €145 Teagasc membership fee, but quickly backed down in the face of farmer anger.

It undertook to complete the KT paperwork and follow up membership debts separately. Teagasc only allows members into its KT groups, with the minimum payment being a €145 annual fee.

Farmers who joined a KT group facilitated by a private agricultural consultant have no such extra charges to pay.

Private consultants maintain they were repeatedly told by the Department that they were not to charge farmers for KT group membership.

Both Teagasc and private consultants receive €500 per group member in the KT programme. With 20,000 applicants, this would amount to €10m in funding from the Department.

The Department of Agriculture has declined to get involved in the debate over Teagasc charging the membership fees.

“The €500 payment per participant to a Knowledge Transfer facilitator covers the standard costs related to running his Knowledge Transfer group(s) set out in the Rural Development Programme 2014-2020.

“This includes costs related to meetings, collaboration with farmer participants on the Farm Improvement Plan and administration of the Knowledge Transfer group,” a Department spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

“Contracts between Teagasc and farmer participants for other services are a matter outside the scope of the programme.”

Fair enough, but the pertinent question is surely that if Teagasc is demanding membership payment for KT participation from someone who wants no other service from the body, in the form of a membership fee, it’s not so much blurring as crossing the line drawn by the Department for private planners.

Some farmers are with advisers who are not participating as KT facilitators, others do their own basic payment application, and feel, rightly or wrongly, that they have no need of Teagasc membership. A Teagasc KT group is the only option in some areas.

While it may be year two of the KT programme, before matters come to a head, a small group of vocal farmers may require the Department to revisit this matter.

Is there any training on nettle-grasping in the KT programme, I wonder?

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