Young farmers could have access to increased Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) funding levels in the years ahead, as a consensus appears to have emerged among MEPs seeking a mandatory CAP spending requirement of 6% on young farmers.

The current CAP requires member states to spend the equivalent of 3% of their pillar one envelope on young farmers, but momentum is building for an obligation on each country to spend a minimum of 6% of their total CAP funds on generational renewal.

Ireland’s CAP plan states that around two-thirds of the current requirement is to be met through area-based young farmer top-ups via the Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers, with the remainder coming from higher rates of Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) III grant aid.

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Last summer’s post-2027 CAP proposals from the European Commission had referenced the 6% spend on young farmers as an aspirational target that would not be mandatory for member states.

Early indications

However, the European Parliament’s chief CAP negotiator Norbert Lins MEP told the Irish Farmers Journal that despite negotiations still being at an early stage, “I am sure, we will not accept that”.

“As is typical, in some parts, MEPs will ask for more flexibility and, in other parts, they will look for more commonality,” Lins said last week on a visit to Ireland.

“I am sure that there will be a majority in the agriculture committee and in the [European] Parliament to ask for a minimum budget for young farmers. We cannot leave that decision to member states,” the German MEP said.

Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Cowen also backed the making mandatory of the 6% young farmer target, suggesting that “double payments for young farmers” should be on the table in a bid to encourage the next generation on to the land.

“This has to be addressed and has to be the priority. Indeed, we would back that and go beyond it if necessary,” Cowen said.

The Midlands Northwest MEP added that the next CAP should push member states to run a “complimentary retirement package” alongside young farmer schemes to cater for the generation stepping back.

MEP Maria Walsh stated that she had been “very frustrated” to see the 6% target put into the proposals as optional for member states, as she indicated that a report that she is heading up for the Parliament’s agriculture committee on generation renewal could look for a figure higher than 6%.

“If we are not going to be ambitious at least at 6%, then we are literally looking at young farmers saying there is going to be a challenged future and some of you may make it to the end, some of you won’t,” Walsh told the Irish Farmers Journal.