The Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association (ICMSA) has welcomed the announcement yesterday (Monday, November 15) that farmers could now choose to extend their contracts for one more year under the Green, Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue confirmed the details yesterday on how farmers can opt to extend their GLAS contracts for 2022, as part of the transitional arrangements before the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) comes into force.
GLAS 1,2 and 3 contracts were due to expire next December 31, but farmers who avail of the extension will see their contracts roll-over until December 31, of next year.
However, despite welcoming the minister’s announcement, the ICMSA highlighted that there will be several thousand farmers who will not have an agri-environmental scheme, despite the demand for one.
The organisation called on the government to bring forward a scheme for this purpose.
Denis Drennan, the ICMSA’s Farm and Rural Affairs chairperson, pointed out that only 5,000 farmers were accepted into the Results-Based Rural Environmental Agri Pilot (REAP) last year, when in excess of 12,000 applied for it.
This, Drennan argued, showed “that there is an appetite among farmers to engage with environmentally sustainable systems”.
“It is incumbent upon the state – which is never done lecturing farmers on the need to become even more sustainable – to bring forward a properly designed and funded scheme to meet the demand among commercial farmers that is demonstrably there.”
The IMCSA is also seeking clarification on whether farmers who were GLAS 1,2 or 3 and were previously renting land but no longer are will still be eligible for the GLAS extension under their current home farm.
The GLAS extension announcement was also welcomed by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), which said that it will “provide certainty for applicants”.
However, Michael Biggins, the association’s rural development chairperson, argued that “the process for farmers must be kept simple”.
“All farmers who respond must get a confirmation of receipt of application.
“Any GLAS participant who has not replied by either method before the closing date of December 10, must be contacted again by the department prior to the closing date to ensure all GLAS participants have ample opportunity to extend their GLAS contacts,” Biggins urged.