The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers' Association (ICSA) has come out against the template of the new Results-based Environment-Agri Pilot (REAP), saying it is unfair to include nitrates derogation farmers in the scheme.

ICSA president Dermot Kelleher said that the scheme will exclude those “doing the most amount of good for the environment, particularly in designated areas”, while rewarding dairy farmers with a derogation.

“It’s just wrong to have an agri-environment [scheme] money going to farmers who require a nitrates derogation," he said.

Recognition

Kelleher said the template cannot be used to design any future agri-environmental scheme in the new CAP, saying that less-intensive lower-income farms should be supported through these schemes.

“The importance of supporting and rewarding less-intensive low-income cattle and sheep farmers in any new CAP agri-environment scheme cannot be overstated.

“Recognition must be given to those farmers who are doing the most to protect the environment and who are on the lowest of incomes.”

€15,000 agri-environment payment

He also said that the ICSA will fight for low-income cattle, sheep and tillage farmers to receive €15,000 through an agri-environmental scheme, and that “these are the farmers who rely on such schemes to keep their farming businesses afloat”.

“We will not stand for precious CAP funds to be diverted to the most intensive and larger-scale farms, who are reliant on a dairy derogation, and who typically earn multiples of what the drystock and tillage farmers are making.”