Farmers who turn down a place in the co-operation stream of the Agri-Environment Climate Measure (AECM) won’t be accepted into the scheme at all, one farm organisation leader has suggested.

Vincent Roddy, the president of the Irish Natura and Hill Farmers’ Association (INHFA), told a meeting of the Inishown branch of the organisation in Co. Donegal last week that it was his understanding that a farmer who applies for the cooperation stream and is unsuccessful will be offered a place in the general aspect of the scheme.

However, if a farmer in one of the areas covered by the ‘cooperation project (CP) zones’ does not opt to apply under this stream, then they will not be offered a place in the general stream, Roddy warned.

The AECM will be divided into two ‘streams’ when it begins from 2023. The ‘AECM General’ will account for 30,000 of the envisaged total uptake of 50,000. In this stream, the maximum payment per farmer will be €7,000, with an expected average payment of €5,000.

The second aspect of the scheme is known as the ‘cooperation stream’. This will cater for some 20,000 farmers in eight specific CP zones, seven of which are located in the west and northwest of the country. Here, the maximum payment will be around €10,500 while the expected average payment will be €7,000.

Farmers in the CP zones – if they opt to apply to the AECM – will be part of cooperation projects and will implement more stringent environmental measures. They will also be subject to oversight by ‘CP teams’ which will be made up of ecologists, hydrologists, ornithologists and project managers.

The AECM will be the ‘flagship environment scheme’ of Pillar II of the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and will replace the Green, Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

However, the INHFA Inishown branch meeting also heard concerns that the scheme will be oversubscribed, as the presumed uptake is based on a national average – though uptake in the CP zones is likely to be higher than the national average.

At the meeting, INHFA president Roddy highlighted that there are some 30,000 farmers across the eight CP zones, with the 20,000 expected participants being based on the 60% national average.

Roddy warned that the actual demand for entry to the scheme in these areas is likely to be higher than 20,000.

And if ‘excess applicants’ for the cooperation stream are then shunted into the AECM General, then the latter stream may also be oversubscribed.

For that reason, the INHFA is calling for the scheme to be sufficiently funded to accommodate a total of 70,000 farmers.

Speaking at the meeting, INHFA Donegal county chairperson John McConway noted that the numbers of farmers in GLAS, added to the number of farmers who applied for the Results-Based Rural Environmental Agri Pilot (REAP) last year, amounts to some 62,000.

“There are almost 50,000 farmers in GLAS, and when the call went out for applications for the new REAP last year there were some 12,000 applicants. This brings us past 60,000 but we still haven’t included farmers that would have liked to join but didn’t see any benefit in applying because they would not have been accepted,” McConway said.

He added: “It is vital that enough places be made available across both streams of the AECM and the overall budget is increased to accommodate at least 70,000 farmers.”