The stark reality of the changing face of farming in Ireland, and more importantly how policy will change it from a food production business to a more environmentally rewarding business, was crystal clear to farmers at the first of our CAP information meetings in Cork this week.

Following on from presentations about how the new CAP – starting on 1 January – will have an impact in real terms on Irish farms, one female voice from the audience asked can EU food policy not change? Her point was the world has changed in the last year in terms of energy security and the sad reality is that there are almost 800 million people short of food in parts of the world.

To cut a long story short, this new CAP policy essentially limits food production on many Irish farms that potentially could produce more food.

Fran Morrin, the Department of Agriculture lead on CAP and our keynote speaker at these meetings, acknowledged the huge world change that has happened.

However, he effectively poured cold water on any suggestion that there will be a change to the CAP policy being rolled out from 1 January 2023.

He made the point that this 2023 policy was devised starting back in 2017 when Europeans were asked where and how do they want EU funds spent on food and farming.

He said the overwhelming feedback then was to spend it on more sustainable and environmentally conscious food production.

While Michael Scannell, deputy director general at DG Agri, further emphasised when speaking at the annual EU meat processor gathering in Dublin last week that food security remains central to the new CAP, the reality in an Irish context is very different.

Preparation

The acute reality is that for the next number of weeks advisers and consultants around Ireland will be working seven days a week to get farmers to participate in the new ACRES environmental scheme or to join the new organics scheme.

Whether we agree or disagree with the principles of either scheme, both these schemes work on lower stocking rates and lower inputs, resulting in lower output.

These two schemes are central to the new CAP for a lot of Irish farms as they underpin the financial return to the business.

In Cork, there were a number of clear calls to action for farmers.

Advisers and consultants across the country are inevitably going to be under pressure to get work completed given the deadlines. This has started already and looks unlikely to ease until the middle of May next year.

The clear message from speakers was to start the discussion now with your advisers on what schemes work for your business. And importantly, start the discussion now with advisers and landowners on the terms of the land leases that will start next year which are affected by the new CAP.

The case studies completed by our team of sector specialists show that for individual farms, there are some very serious reductions in CAP support depending on certain conditions.

Changes

There are some changes that may limit the impact on the farm business which, if considered, may lessen the impact.

These may include: dropping leased land; taking on more land; leasing or selling entitlements; renegotiating the terms of the lease agreements etc.

The bottom line is there will be fundamental income changes on Irish farms next year. There is an onus on individual farmers to know how this will affect their farm income.

We have more CAP information meetings coming up in Carlow (3 November), Galway (9 November), and Cavan (15 November) over the coming weeks. Register here.