The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) is calling on the government to use over €9.5 million in funding from the EU Commission for the tillage sector.
In June, the commission announced a support package worth €330 million for 22 EU member states to help farmers impacted by adverse climate events, high input costs and market and trade-related issues.
Ireland will be among the member states to benefit from this exceptional support from the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Tillage
IFA National Grain Committee chair Kieran McEvoy is urging Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue to use this EU agricultural reserve funding to provide urgent exceptional aid to the tillage sector.
“Our sector has many medium and long-term challenges that are being looked at by the Food Vision Tillage Group, but right now we have a crisis situation on the ground,” McEvoy said.
Last Friday (September 22), the IFA met with Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Pascal Donohoe as part of the pre-budget process.
“The delegation pointed that this crisis had significantly worsened since we made our pre-budget submission and this must be addressed in the upcoming budget, or before it if possible,” McEvoy said.
“The EU Commission has provisionally allocated Ireland with €9.5 million of funding from the agricultural reserve.
“These funds are earmarked to support sectors impacted by adverse weather, high input costs and market-related issues. The tillage sector is taking a hit by each measure.
“The commission also granted member states the scope to complement agricultural reserve funding with 200% funding from the national exchequer.
“The minister must leverage off this and ensure any exceptional aid is topped up with additional funding in the forthcoming budget,” McEvoy said.
The IFA chair warned that without support there will be a further contraction in the tillage area in 2024.
Meanwhile, IFA presidential candidate Francie Gorman said that a comprehensive aid package is needed to avoid tillage farmers exiting the sector.
The Laois farmer said that successive months of poor weather have created havoc for tillage farmers across Ireland and, in some cases, farmers have lost their entire crop.
“Many of the tillage farmers I have met have not witnessed a worse year than this in their lives.
“Rainfalls totals in the past week alone have been two to three times above average, which follows what was the wettest July on record in Ireland,” Gorman said.
He added that there needs to be a “complete review of the tillage sector” to ensure a future for farmers.
“Tillage farmers who grew crops this year will exit the business unless there is an exceptional aid package put in place. Any such scheme to support the sector needs to be tailored in a way that the benefits go directly to tillage farmers,” Gorman said.