The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has moved swiftly to call a national meeting on what it has called "policy threats to farming on peat soils".
Farmers from across the country are set to gather on Thursday 6 March at 8pm in the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone.
In the last two weeks, farmers on peat soils have been hearing of new rules and voluntary management options for managing peat soils.
GAEC 2 – a cross compliance measure in CAP to reduce stocking rates and change management of peat soils - will kick in when approved by the European Commission in the coming weeks.
In addition, just this week the Irish Farmers Journal revealed that the Department of Agriculture is targeting 25,000ac for what it calls reduced management intensity, which may include full rewetting, in 2025. Most of this will be on peat soils that have been drained in the past.
The national target to rewet 200,000ac by 2030 was also revealed at a Department of Agriculture-organised meeting to which no farm organisations were invited late last week.
Entice
It is expected any incentive scheme to entice farmers to rewet will be voluntary and farmers will be compensated.
However, farmers and farming groups have reacted angrily to the Department update, as they fear significant reduction in land values and decimation of rural villages where livestock farming is so important.
On Friday, Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae said farmers who turned "brown ground green" should not have to rewet land.
Speaking at an Agri Aware farm walk and talk event in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, the minister stated that farmers who worked hard to make land productive should not be compelled to return it to its original condition.
Threat
The IFA statement announcing its emergency Athlone meeting said Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) conditionality, so-called ‘reduced intensity’ farming proposals, and Nature Restoration Law requirements are posing a threat to the viability of farming on peat soils.
Announcing the meeting, IFA deputy president Alice Doyle said: “Firstly, farmers need to be fully informed about what is going on. Most of these issues are resulting from decisions made by the previous Government and the previous [European] Commission.
"However, the new Government and Commission seem to be hellbent on implementing all of these measures, despite promises of simplification and reduced bureaucracy. These measures threaten to wipe out commercial farming and devalue land at the stroke of a pen,” she said.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has been invited to the meeting in Athlone.
Read more
State push to rewet land
Plan to cut farming on 80,000ha of peat soils
Farmers who turned ‘brown ground green’ should not have to rewet - Healy-Rae
The Irish Farmers Association (IFA) has moved swiftly to call a national meeting on what it has called "policy threats to farming on peat soils".
Farmers from across the country are set to gather on Thursday 6 March at 8pm in the Hodson Bay Hotel in Athlone.
In the last two weeks, farmers on peat soils have been hearing of new rules and voluntary management options for managing peat soils.
GAEC 2 – a cross compliance measure in CAP to reduce stocking rates and change management of peat soils - will kick in when approved by the European Commission in the coming weeks.
In addition, just this week the Irish Farmers Journal revealed that the Department of Agriculture is targeting 25,000ac for what it calls reduced management intensity, which may include full rewetting, in 2025. Most of this will be on peat soils that have been drained in the past.
The national target to rewet 200,000ac by 2030 was also revealed at a Department of Agriculture-organised meeting to which no farm organisations were invited late last week.
Entice
It is expected any incentive scheme to entice farmers to rewet will be voluntary and farmers will be compensated.
However, farmers and farming groups have reacted angrily to the Department update, as they fear significant reduction in land values and decimation of rural villages where livestock farming is so important.
On Friday, Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae said farmers who turned "brown ground green" should not have to rewet land.
Speaking at an Agri Aware farm walk and talk event in Pallaskenry, Co Limerick, the minister stated that farmers who worked hard to make land productive should not be compelled to return it to its original condition.
Threat
The IFA statement announcing its emergency Athlone meeting said Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) conditionality, so-called ‘reduced intensity’ farming proposals, and Nature Restoration Law requirements are posing a threat to the viability of farming on peat soils.
Announcing the meeting, IFA deputy president Alice Doyle said: “Firstly, farmers need to be fully informed about what is going on. Most of these issues are resulting from decisions made by the previous Government and the previous [European] Commission.
"However, the new Government and Commission seem to be hellbent on implementing all of these measures, despite promises of simplification and reduced bureaucracy. These measures threaten to wipe out commercial farming and devalue land at the stroke of a pen,” she said.
Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon has been invited to the meeting in Athlone.
Read more
State push to rewet land
Plan to cut farming on 80,000ha of peat soils
Farmers who turned ‘brown ground green’ should not have to rewet - Healy-Rae
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