The government is being called on to make farmers fully aware of new conditionality under the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) for registering water abstraction points above a certain threshold.
At present, anyone, including farmers, that abstract 25m3 or 25,000L of water per day from a river, lake, stream, spring, groundwater well, borehole, or estuary must register this abstraction with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
However, it is understood that it is now part of conditionality under the new CAP for farmers to do this.
The requirement falls under the statutory management requirements (SMR) of the conditionality to receive full direct payments, specifically SMR 1 and SMR 2.
According to Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027, SMRs 1 and 2 directly concerns the efficient use management of water through specific rules for water abstraction points and measures to promote good agricultural practices for the protection of waters.
Controls under SMR 1, in particular, include checks on water abstraction points and diffuse sources liable to cause pollution.
However, the fact that water abstraction regulations are now part of CAP conditionality seems to have gone somewhat under the radar.
Speaking to Agriland, Paul O’Brien, the environment chairperson for the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) called for engagement between the relevant authorities and farmers to make the latter fully aware of their obligations on the matter of water abstraction.
“Most certainly, from an IFA’s point of view, we would be looking for a certain level of awareness around this, so farmers who may be deemed in need of registering for this would be given time to be able to apply,” O’Brien said.
He added: “What we need is information out there so that farmers who may be impacted by this [CAP] requirement are informed…so that their BISS payment going forward is not impacted when payments are normally scheduled to arrive in farmers’ bank accounts.
“There needs to be information presented to these farmers,that they may or may not fall under this new [CAP] requirement,” `the IFA environment chair commented.