Accounts published this week for 2016 show a 32% rise in the income Teagasc derived from knowledge transfer activities, which include discussion groups under the Knowledge Transfer scheme itself, training and advisory services under other schemes and individual farm advice.

While the agency received €4.3m from Rural Development Programme schemes in 2015 (for GLAS only), this jumped to €9.2m last year with the GLAS, BDGP, Knowledge Transfer (KT) and Carbon Navigator schemes all contributing.

Teagasc director Prof Gerry Boyle acknowledged a “particularly successful year” in generating income from schemes.

He told the Irish Farmers Journal that much of those funds were in turn spent on contracting partner FRS and farmers to deliver the schemes under his agency’s supervision.

“Teagasc had to pay the farmers for participating in the training schemes, so while we got the money in, it had to go back out again to farmers – that’s true also of the Knowledge Transfer scheme.”

Prof Boyle added that while each farmer in the KT scheme receives €750, the other €500 that stays with Teagasc replaces what farmers would previously have paid the agency for facilitation of their discussion groups.

Overall, income from Teagasc’s various knowledge transfer activities grew by €6.6m last year, while increases in grant aid added another €5.6m. The agency returned a €6m surplus.

New staff

Teagasc’s 2016 payroll expenditure topped €70m for the first time since 2012 as the agency hired new staff following the lifting of the recruitment freeze.