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There are concerns that tillage farms will be the worst affected by efforts to redistribute farm payments in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Convergence, capping and front-loading are front and centre of the latest round of consultations on farm payments being held between the Department of Agriculture and stakeholders.
“The tillage sector bore the brunt of the last CAP and this cannot be allowed to happen again,” Clive Carter, secretary of the Irish Grain Growers Group (IGG), told the Irish Farmers Journal.
He said the group was dead against any further convergence, as it disproportionately targeted tillage farms.
The IGG is calling for the minimum amount of convergence possible and over the longest timeframe.
In a lot of cases, tillage farmers are claiming these payments on rented ground, so capping will actually target the wrong person
“Further convergence will just push more land from tillage and into other sectors,” Carter said.
He said other supports to compensate tillage farmers affected by convergence were needed to ensure family farms remained viable.
On capping, Carter said IGG supported a maximum limit of €100,000, but counselled caution around reducing amounts to farmers receiving between €60,000 and the limit.
“In a lot of cases, tillage farmers are claiming these payments on rented ground, so capping will actually target the wrong person if those payments are reverting to the landowner,” Carter explained.
Direct payments to the tillage sector need to be protected
He said the IGG would define a genuine farmer as the person taking the risk, be it on owned land or rented ground, completing the required measures, and using best farm practices.
When it came to front-loading and a small farmer scheme, he said there would be opposition from tillage farmers to a linear cut to fund such measures.
“Direct payments to the tillage sector need to be protected. What a lot of these proposals look set to do is go against the objectives of the CAP and move money away from full-time family farms who are protecting the environment,” Carter concluded.
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