The IFA’s rural development chair John Curran has said that the Department of Agriculture must find a solution to issues arising with some farmers when attempting to access the updated agfood portal now named myagfood.ie.

A revamp of the scheme application and compliance portal was unveiled at the National Ploughing Championships by Minister for Agriculture Martin Heydon.

The minister described the update as a “key part” of the Department’s strategy to “improve its online customer services, making them more accessible and efficient”.

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However, the IFA’s rural development chair has reported that some farmers are coming up against login issues when trying to access the online facility.

“We are getting calls from farmers the length and breadth of the country that are having issues getting into AgFood, particularly those in poor coverage areas who can’t get their access tokens on time, or it’s sent to their son/daughter who signed in before them,” Curran said.

“The old log-on system was a bit cumbersome, but it was working, so changing it has to be questioned.”

Curran acknowledged some “positive aspects to the portal” in terms of appearance, but warned that any new features will be of no use to users if they cannot access their account, especially when an increasing volume of Department information is communicated through the portal.

He claimed that the IFA had raised with the Department the potential for the update to leave the portal “inaccessible for a large number of farmers”.

“We have provided alternative solutions which we will be putting forward again at upcoming working group meetings.”