The Department of Agriculture is on track to launch its new agri-environment scheme over the coming weeks.

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue told the AGM of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) that the launch of the Agri-Environment Climate Measures (AECM) and other CAP schemes was imminent.

“We plan to launch these over the next short period of time and to open them for applications,” Minister McConalogue said.

ADVERTISEMENT

He said the aim was to have farmers participating in the schemes from 1 January next year.

Although Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan is unlikely to get the green light from Brussels until September, Minister McConalogue insisted that preparations for the launch and operation of the AECM were pushing ahead.

The AECM will have a budget of €1.5bn over the lifetime of the next CAP (2023-27) or €300m a year. The Department envisages that around 50,000 farmers will participate in the scheme.

'Serious reservations'

However, INHFA president Vincent Roddy said farmers had serious reservations with regard to the proposed scorecard system to measure the performance of individual farmers.

He said this was particularly a concern with regard to commonages where a number of farmers were required to perform particular actions.

“Farmers, especially those on commonages, are fearful and they have every right to be - because their score is dependent on the collective actions of everyone on the commonage. This is something we have to look at and the window is narrowing,” Mr Roddy said.

When asked about this, Minister McConalogue pointed out that the scorecard system has worked well in European Innovative Partnerships (EIPs).

Further engagement

However, he stressed that further engagement and consultation on how the scheme worked was still possible.

Meanwhile, the INHFA reiterated its call for an increase in overall budget for Pillar II and particularly for the AECM programme.

“I am asking the Minister to go back to cabinet seeking a further increase to the budget of at least €150m/year,” said Roddy.

“With such an increase, we can accommodate 70,000 farmers in the AECM, an increase of 20,000 from what is being proposed,” he maintained.