A high percentage of farms on the island of Ireland are unfortunately in a position of being highly reliant on direct payments to generate a positive margin.

The margin a farm is capable of generating has been hit on the double in recent years, with rising input costs eroding returns from a stagnant market while falling payments are no longer able to compensate on a growing number of farms. This focus looks at some of the critical farming schemes.

Many of these are coming to an end in their current form, with the most important of these being the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS). Phelim O’Neill looks at the early signals on what may be included in the next CAP reform. It will be a critical reform as if productive farmers, irrespective of where they are based in the country, face more cuts it will leave more farmers highly exposed.

Brexit threat

Brexit-related CAP reform delays threaten more than just the future of the BPS. Many other schemes under the current Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 are also coming to their end date in this year or the next. The Knowledge Transfer groups are coming to an end at the end of July.

The Sheep Welfare Scheme, Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) and Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme are also reviewed.

There are many other important programmes in play. The Protein Aid Scheme is summarised along with an overview on GLAS while TAMS has been critical for on farm investment and safety improvement.

Other important schemes not featured include Areas of Natural Constraint, organics scheme and locally led programmes such as the Burren scheme, all of which will be covered at a later date.