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Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue is leaving grassland farmers in “limbo” after creating “an expectation that measures would be introduced” to support them in light of rising input costs, says the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers Association (ICMSA).
ICMSA president Pat McCormack said farmers growing grass, the most common crop in Irish agriculture, need direct action on fertiliser prices, energy costs - including green diesel - and feed costs.
The Tipperary farmer warned that it is “about time” the Minister stated his position on the supports he intends introducing for those producing grass to feed livestock and make silage.
Fodder concerns
McCormack said it’s been almost a month since a crisis meeting was held in relation to concerns around growing enough feed and fodder for 2022.
He said that despite the concerns raised at that initial meeting, “no announcement has been forthcoming” in relation to financial supports.
He warned that there has been “no indication” from Minister McConalogue on how he intends to provide support for farmers to grow sufficient grass and silage this year in the face of unprecedented fertiliser costs alongside rapidly rising feed and energy costs.
More than 100,000 grassland farmers have got no support
The ICMSA president said: “A tillage support scheme has been put in place, but more than 100,000 grassland farmers have got no support to date apart from a Multi Species Sward Scheme that had already been announced.
"I have to be blunt. Anyone suggesting that the Multi Species Sward Scheme is an appropriate response is not living in the real world.”
EU funding
McCormack said that the Minister has received funding from the EU which can be topped up.
The Irish Farmers Journal revealed last week that some €15.8m in funding has been provided to Ireland by the European Commission to support farmers to mitigate the impact of the war in Ukraine on farm input supplies and prices.
Government can top this up by a further 200% to a sum which would near €48m in total.
The dairy farmer said the tax take from the agriculture sector from excise to VAT has increased considerably in 2022 and called for that additional money to be redeployed to support farmers in these unprecedented times.
“We either support farmers now or have a potentially bigger problem in the autumn. It really is as blunt as that.
“The year is moving on and farmers need to make decisions. The Minister must state his position on the supports he has already signalled and that needs to happen immediately,” he said.
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