The budget for the new National Liming Programme has been doubled from €8 million to €16 million, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, announced today (Sunday, August 13).
Speaking at the Tullamore Show today Minister McConalogue said the budget boost will mean that each eligible applicant to the 2023 programme will get approval for up to “40t of lime”.
All eligible applicants to the programme are expected to received a letter of approval from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) shortly which will detail their eligible tonnage of lime.
DAFM has stated that the National Liming Programme will be funded as a “once-off Ukraine funded measure” from the National Exchequer.
Farmers who submitted a Basic Payment scheme (BPS) application in 2022 and or a Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application in 2023 were eligible to apply for the programme.
However farmers that availed of a nitrates derogation in 2022 or 2023 and farmers with “a grassland stocking rate above 170kg livestock manure nitrogen/ha prior to export in 2022” were not eligible apply to the programme.
National Liming Programme
According to DAFM a total of 41,000 farmers had applied to the new national programme and the the average tonnage sought per applicant under the liming programme was just over 111t.
Under the terms of the scheme approved applicants will receive a financial contribution of €16/t of calcium ground limestone or magnesium ground limestone delivered and spread.
The maximum payment that a farmer is likely to receive is in the region of €640.
Minister McConalogue said the level of applications was a “clear indication” of the importance that farmers place on “optimising soil health and improving their environmental sustainability”.
The minister said: “In light of the phenomenal demand expressed by farmers, I am delighted to be able to announce a doubling of the budget for the programme from the original amount.
“Here in Tullamore today I’m delighted to be participating in the multi-stakeholder discussion at the sustainability village and supports like this liming programme are key to helping the agriculture sector achieve their environmental goals”.
According to DAFM all claims for payment must be submitted online by October 31, 2023.