The minister said in a statement on Monday that his department was allocating €3 million under the Rural Development Programme to provide financial support for "collaborative farming initiatives".

The aim of this grant scheme is to encourage the establishment of new farm partnership arrangements by contributing to the the legal, advisory and financial services costs incurred by farmers in the drawing up of their farm partnership agreement.

"Traditionally, farm partnerships in Ireland were considered only for the dairy sector and the only form of collaborative arrangement was the farm partnership to the exclusion of other types," Coveney said. "I am delighted through this scheme to be expanding the sectors for which partnerships are available to all aspects of Irish agriculture, including beef, sheep, tillage and horticulture."

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The minister added that he would soon extend the scheme to support solicitors', accountants' and farm advisors' fees involved in setting up shared farming, contract rearing and other forms of collaborative agreements.

IFA rural development executive secretary Gerry Gunning told the Irish Farmers Journal that the scheme was a positive step, with partnerships offering solutions to land mobilitiy issues."But it will take a lot of work to get started on the ground," he warned in reference to the novelty of collaborative agreements for many Irish farmers.

The Department of Agriculture has recently established a new Register of Farm Partnerships to replace the old Milk Production Partnership Register maintained by Teagasc.Since April, more than 850 farm addedhave applied to be placed on the new register including 550 existing milk production partnerships.

The Department said that it would contact the vast majority of the 300 new partnerships in the coming weeks to advise them that the grant scheme is open for application.