CAP reforms will favour small and young farmers, the Irish Farmers Journal can exclusively reveal.

The policy proposals to be unveiled by European Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan this Friday are set to propose front-loading of payments. This involves higher payments on an initial number of hectares. The capping of payments at €60,000 is also proposed.

Greening will be scrapped, but a new agri-environmental programme will be established from within Pillar I, requiring a further cut in BPS payment levels.

A 2% fund for young farmers will also be created from the basic payment pot.

A further 10% of direct payment funds can be directed towards coupled payments, such as a suckler cow payment.

These combined measures, if adopted by Ireland, could see cuts approaching the 30% inflicted on higher payment recipients in the Ciolos reforms of 2013.

Member states will be granted unprecedented licence to tailor CAP to the needs of their farmers.

Basic payments are already braced for a 4% budget cut. Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed is opposed to any CAP budget cut, and is meeting the French, Spanish and Italian ministers this week to push for higher funding from member states.

Front-loading is back on the table

IFA president Joe Healy says any budget cut “is a non-runner”.

Front-loading was the preferred option of many farmers in the west of Ireland in the last reform. Éamon Ó Cuív, the Fianna Fáil agriculture spokesman at the time, wanted a single farm payment of €314 for the first 32ha, with a payment of €182/ha on all remaining eligible lands. Any significant front-loading of payments, for instance on the first 10ha, will surely require a cut in higher entitlements. The young farmer fund is not new, but from now on will operate annually on a use it or lose it basis – unused funds will not be redistributed among farmers, but returned to Brussels coffers.

While capping of direct payments at €60,000 is still a firm proposal, it is contended that the effect of that proposal is diluted by the facility to discount family wages when calculating the cut-off point. This system currently operates in member states where the €150,000 cut-off is imposed. The reality is that the bulk of the new measures will have to be funded by further cuts in payments.

Last week’s confirmation by the National Farm Survey that over 100% of drystock farmers incomes come from direct payments means that any such cuts are effectively income cuts.

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