Farmers were successful in 44% of appeals taken against Department of Agriculture scheme decisions in 2022.

The independent Agricultural Appeals Office received 635 farmer appeals last year and closed 930 cases, some of which were outstanding from previous years, figures released in the Department’s report for 2022 show.

Some 44% of appeals were allowed either in part or in full, while 40% were struck down and a further 16% withdrawn or deemed invalid. The number of appeals received was down by over a fifth on 2021 when only 37% of appeals were upheld in full or in part.

Forestry

Department decisions on forestry licences were successfully appealed in 128 cases dealt with by the Forestry Appeals Committee in 2022.

The report also outlined that the Department met its target 84% of the time in seeking to pay farmers’ TB reactor valuation payments within three weeks of receiving all required documentation.

Figures on badger control under the TB eradication programme show that the number of badgers trapped and released hit 7,245 last year, of which 3,890 were newly vaccinated.

Fertiliser

Urea was the only fertiliser type to see a rise in sales from 2021 to 2022, the annual report states, even though nitrogen fertiliser tonnage was back 14% overall, as was fertiliser as a whole.

Lime use was up 4% in 2022 to over 1,380,000t, but this increase is on top of a 50% jump in sales in 2021.

The Department reported that out-of-tolerance samples of fertiliser and lime were found in 11% and 8% of cases with each respective product.