Only genuine active farmers should be eligible for CAP money - IFA

Only genuine active farmers engaged in food production should be eligible to claim payments from the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) has said in its CAP post-2027 document.

The responsibility of defining active farmers should rest with individual member states, given the diversity of food production systems across Europe, the IFA said.

“Activity should be defined through a minimum output/sale value from the farm and stocking density, with a different, lower level for organic farms, those on designated land or those in areas of natural constraints (ANC),” it added.

There should be no further capping of Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) for genuine active farmers, it said. The current limit is €66,000.

Agri-environment schemes

The association has said that “agri-environment schemes should be available and appealing to all farmers (not only at the start of the new CAP programme)”.

“Baseline requirements should be removed, with payment to meet national mandatory requirements, plus any additional actions, provided.

"A loyalty bonus should be built into payments where farmers continually participate in agri-environmental schemes,” the IFA said.

The ACRES scheme has been shambolic and has failed to deliver for farmers, it added.

“We need a revamped environmental scheme that provides farmers with a minimum annual payment of €15,000.”

GAEC 2

It said that GAEC 2 should be removed from conditionality in the next CAP and an incentivised approach through eco schemes or agri-environmental schemes should be adopted instead.

The two-crop rule needs to be removed entirely, as it is “driving an exodus of smaller growers away from the tillage sector”, it said, adding that the lie-back requirement under GAEC 6 has to be abolished.

The IFA is also seeking a separate environment fund to support environmental actions on farm.

“This must include support for farmers with designated land and any actions that may arise to support the EU nature restoration plans,” it said.

Designated land

The IFA has said that the economic impact of designation needs to be better realised in future CAP schemes and no further restrictions should apply to designated or Natura 2000 lands.

“Increased support (advisory, financial, etc) beyond priority access to mainstream schemes should be provided and agricultural activity allowed to continue, with a full review of the internal operating dynamics surrounding designations, compensation and applications for actions requiring consent in consultation with key farming stakeholders.

“A ‘no compensation, no designation’ policy should apply. Where financial resources are not available to remunerate impacted farmers for lost income potential, security and asset devaluations, the designations should be removed,” it said.

The IFA has also called for the introduction of a succession scheme which looks after the retiring farmer and the new entrant.

“This may include a tiered payment structure, with top-ups and increased grant thresholds offered to young farmers until they reach 40 years of age (regardless of how many years they have been farming),” it said.

CAP budget

It said the next CAP must target payment at those who need it most – farmers producing food, working the land, tending to livestock and harvesting crops.

The IFA has said that a comprehensive economic, environmental and social impact assessment of any proposed MFF/CAP reforms must be completed.

The CAP must remain a stand-alone allocation with the EU budget, according to the IFA.

“Its funding allocation needs to be substantially increased to meet the growing political societal objectives set, as well as EU enlargement, and used to support farmers, food production and food security.

“It should also be index-linked (to guarantee continuity of food supplies and help preserve on-farm margins in inflationary times) and simplified considerably, adopting an incentivised rather than regulatory approach, and rebalancing the importance afforded to economic sustainability,” the IFA said.

The IFA has said that reallocating EU funding into a single fund would undermine the CAP and increase complexity and uncertainty for farms, weaken the single market and negatively impact EU rural areas.