The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has been called on to provide clarity on landscape action (LA) options for commonage farmers in the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA) has called on the department to finalise details on LAs as these are “essential for commonage farmers operating in ACRES CP (co-operation project) zones.
Vincent Roddy, the INHFA president said that the LAs are there to assist commonage farmers in improving their habitat scores.
“For commonage farmers, especially those with a low score of four or less (on scorecards), possible actions such as tackling invasive species or tweaking a farming task can provide an immediate bonus that will be reflected in farmers’ habitat score.
“Actions such as these will, we expect, be part of a wider range of actions available to commonage farmers in a similar manner that the no-productive investments (NPIs) are there to support farmers on their private lands,” Roddy said.
“With farmers finally getting their habitat scores almost two years after joining ACRES, many farmers are now looking to see how they can improve their score,” Roddy added.
He said that it is essential that farmers be able to take action on LAs before any further assessments.
“We need to see the Department of Agriculture publish the list of landscape actions so the CP teams (which administer the scheme in CP zones) can discuss and work with farmers and their advisors around what actions can best deliver for them.”
The INHFA president welcomed the opening of the application window for the non-productive investments (NPIs), which was announced this week by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue.
However, he said that “lessons must be learnt” by the department following the previous NPI application window last year.
“There are currently thousands of farmers left in limbo following applications made last autumn that the department have still not sanctioned. With the department looking to claim back money from some farmers it is galling that many farmers, that were asked to pay back money, were not given the opportunity to carry out their NPIs,” Roddy said.
“If these farmers were given such an opportunity, then it could possibly have eliminated the need to pay back any money.
“This is why we are once again asking that no money is recovered from farmers this year, as there will be ample opportunity through the NPIs, LAs and future payments for farmers to address this issue,” he added.