The European Commission has proposed allowing farmers access Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) III funds to take their farms into compliance with EU regulations for three years after any changes to regulations enter force.

This would mean that farmers can draw down grant aid for slurry storage, equipment or building investments for an extra year than they previously could, under EU rules.

It also wants to provide “additional support for young farmers in setting up their holdings” by starting this three-year clock from the point a farm is transferred to young farmers in a bid to give leeway to the next generation to bring farms they have taken over into compliance with regulation.

The move could be particularly significant to farmers from next year onwards, as a new Nitrates Action Programme looks set to increase even further the mandatory minimum slurry storage requirements on farms, on foot of an ongoing Teagasc review in this area.

Slurry storage

These expected nitrates changes could leave thousands of farmers who currently meet slurry storage requirements scrambling to add tank space over the coming years in order to stay on the right side of cross compliance rules.

The Commission plans to cut back on the number of on-the-ground CAP scheme inspections by moving to an approach of “only one on-the-spot check per year per farm”.

Brussels also put forward the idea of allowing member states offer small farmers lump sums worth €50,000 for “business development”. However, it did not define either the size of a small farm or any other details on the proposed payment.

Irish farmers should take note of “one point of caution” when Brussels talks about plans for small farms, the assistant secretary general at the Department of Agriculture Sinéad McPhillips warned before the Commission’s proposals were unveiled on Wednesday.

Outlier

The Department official told the IFA meeting in Naas that Ireland’s farm size structure sits as an outlier compared to other EU countries.

The majority of EU farms are smaller than 10ha and these approximately seven million smaller farms are the ones the Commission refers to when it discusses supporting smaller farms.