Ireland can use data demonstrating natural handicaps on farms to apply a great deal of flexibility in its review of the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme, European Commission officials have said.

The scheme is worth €227m to more than 95,000 farmers this year, with western counties most dependent on it.

Ireland is one of 41 countries or regions currently in the process of re-designating eligible areas, out of 109 operating the scheme. Some 26 have now completed the process. Northern Ireland is one of only three phasing out the scheme.

Criteria

The basis for new ANC maps to be unveiled in the coming months is strict natural criteria, with wet soils the one most relevant to Ireland.

However, a meeting of EU farming organisations in Brussels on Monday heard that countries could use a lot of additional data to “finetune” eligibility.

On the one hand, the Department of Agriculture must take out areas that have overcome natural constraints, for example by draining land in the last three decades.

But on the other hand, officials can bring zones back into the scheme on the basis of lower crop or grass yields, or the prevalence of less intensive farming systems such as grazing.

French representatives said they had used farm size as an indicator of handicap.

Up to 10% of the national territory can also be designated under “specific constraints,” such as Ireland’s existing coastal areas.

Solid data

Each country must provide solid data to back up its fine-tuning and payment rates proposal in an amendment to its Rural Development Programme (RDP).

Any farmers dropped from the ANC scheme would see their payments phased out, reducing to 80% in 2019, 20% in 2020 and ending thereafter.

The whole process must conclude before applications for 2019 payments open next spring.

“Sufficient flexibilities are available to ensure that ANC payments can increase and that areas currently designated can be fully protected in the upcoming review,” said IFA rural development chair Joe Brady.

He added that he expected the Commission to approve a separate RDP amendment on the allocation of €25m extra ANC funding in this year’s budget “shortly”.