Budget 2022 will ensure €650 million funding for the rollover of current farm schemes, Agriland understands.
This funding will see the continuation of key schemes including: the Green, Low-carbon, Agri-environment Scheme (GLAS); Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC); the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP), the Beef Environmental Efficiency Programme – Sucklers (BEEP-S); the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS); and the Sheep Welfare Scheme.
On TAMS specifically, an increase in grant aid for solar panel installation on farms is set to be announced.
New grant aid for the planting of multi-species swards is also expected to form part of Budget 2022.
The agriculture sector is also set to see a boost in funding for TB eradication.
Another area set to benefit from today’s budget is farm safety, with an additional €2 million earmarked for that purpose.
The budget is set to be announced today (Tuesday, October 12) at around lunchtime by Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe and Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Michael McGrath.
The funding allocated next year is to tide over farm schemes until the beginning of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in 2023.
2022 will be the second year of the CAP transition period since the end of the last round of the policy in 2020.
The budget announcement last year (Budget 2021) saw €40 million in funding allocated for an extension of the BDGP and a further €40 million for BEEP-S. The latter was topped up by €5 million for a calf weighing measure to support beef farmers rearing dairy calves.
€17 million was also set aside for the Sheep Welfare Scheme in last year’s budget.
Stay tuned to Agriland to see how the funding in Budget 2022 will be allocated to each scheme; as well as other measures relating to farming and agricultural activity.