Coupled support payments for tillage crops should be introduced in the next CAP to ensure that the tillage sector goals contained in the Food Vision 2030 strategy are achieved, the Irish Grain Growers’ Group (IGGG) has advised the Oireachtas agriculture committee.

The IGGG said that Ireland should also provide crop insurance to tillage farmers in the next CAP and keep straw chopping payments and protein aid in place out to 2028, as it said that tillage has been the sector most heavily affected by convergence, losing €20m each year through payment redistribution.

The Irish Organic Association also made a CAP submission to the committee, calling for organic farmers to have priority access to agri-environmental schemes and investment aid in the next CAP.

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It said that an organic farming scheme must be funded out of Ireland’s CAP envelope, that opens on an annual basis to new entrants to the sector.