The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) has said that an increase in investment limits under the Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS) will be important for the poultry sector.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue yesterday (Tuesday, April 12) confirmed that TAMS reference costs were to rise.
Increases to costings will range from 5% to 15% across the investment items listed under the scheme.
The changes come after a “full review” by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) of the reference costs in the scheme.
TAMS review
The department review, as part of tranche 26, saw the investment ceiling for the Pig and Poultry Investment Scheme (PPIS) under TAMS rise from €80,000 to €200,000.
The specifications of the PPIS will facilitate farmers in installing higher welfare infrastructure on their farms.
“The continued development of the pigmeat and poultry sectors are a priority for me given the key role these sectors play in the national economic context,” Minister McConalogue said.
IFA Poultry Committee chair Nigel Sweetnam stated that the decision to increase the investment ceiling will help poultry farmers to upgrade their enterprises.
He said that IFA had campaigned for the increase to better reflect the scale of investment needed on farms.
“Given the very real income difficulties on poultry farms at the moment, every support has to be made available to farmers.
“TAMS is an important scheme which allows farmers to improve their production system,” Sweetnam explained.
The IFA Poultry chairman called for greater emphasis to be placed on renewable energy.
“Poultry farmers could offset their energy costs if they could avail of renewable sources.
“We also want the introduction of reverse metering and the simplification of terms and conditions, which would reduce costs and make our production more environmentally friendly,” Sweetnam concluded.