Improving water quality is the top environmental priority farmers want to see funded in the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), according to a Teagasc survey.

As part of the National Farm Survey, farmers were asked to score a number of potential future CAP options out of five, based on whether they agreed the options should be prioritised.

Of the three environmental priorities surveyed, improving water quality scored 3.98 out of five, the highest-ranked issue among farmers by a distance. It was followed by improving biodiversity outcomes (3.52/5), and reducing greenhouse gas emissions (3.43/5)

Local actions

Author of the report Teagasc economist Cathal Buckley said farmers are likely to favour water quality initiatives, as improvements in these areas can be seen locally. This was the same for biodiversity actions, as they have a local and immediate benefit.

However, addressing climate change through reduced emissions may be seen as longer term and not delivering a benefit to a specific location.

Overall, farmers strongly agreed that it was important that direct payments were linked to obeying certain environmental rules and standards.

On average, farmers surveyed scored the importance of making payments conditional to meeting these standards as 4.1 out of five.

Teagasc found farmers with higher levels of agricultural education and off-farm employment were more likely to agree with its importance.

Agreement was also stronger among those drawing down higher levels of payments, both through direct payments in pillar 1 and farm schemes in pillar 2 of the CAP.

Payments

The policy area farmers ranked as the most important for CAP funding was generational renewal, with an average score of 4.05 out of five. Ireland has one of the lowest shares of farmers under 40 in the EU, Buckley said, at less than 10%.

Farmers’ opinions around payment adjustments were also surveyed.

The convergence or flattening of payments received a mixed response (2.97).

Buckley said this was likely a reflection of the fact there are winners and losers under the policy.

Farmers also ranked a return to coupled payments low as a priority (2.71/5).

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Water quality tops farmers’ environmental priorities for CAP funding

Teagasc surveyed over 700 farmers on what they believed should be prioritised for funding under the next CAP, with environmental actions scoring highly.