The first of the ‘Town Hall’ meetings on the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for 2023 to 2027 took place last night (Tuesday, August 10).
The aim of the virtual event, organised by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, was to inform farmers about the reforms that will be implemented in the new policy.
Although the format of the event has received criticism, some important topics came up for discussion.
One of these was around land eligibility. Although the basic definition of ‘eligible hectare’ on which payment can be received will remain the same, some notable changes will be in place when the new policy takes effect in 2023 (pending the European Commission’s approval of Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan).
The basic conditions for eligible land will remain an agricultural area on which an agricultural activity is carried out.
Specifically, marshy land must, in the first instance, be capable of supporting livestock, as well as have an agricultural activity.
The major change concerns scrub on farmland. As it currently stands, scrub on land is not eligible for payment in the vast majority of situations.
However, the department is proposing that up to 30% of a land parcel can consist of features that are beneficial to the climate and environment – such as scrub or trees – and still receive payment and would be considered part of eligible hectares.
Department official Thomas Harty said that this was an attempt to align Pillar I and Pillar II by acknowledging the importance of areas such as scrub and allowing farmers to declare those areas for payment.
Harty went on to outline two more important changes.
Under the new CAP, the department is proposing that the agricultural activity aspect of the definition of eligible land would only have to be met every two years. In other words, the agricultural activity would not need to be carried out every year.
However, this would only be under “duly justified circumstances” in a situation where there are good environmental reasons to not carry out the agricultural activity every year.
These circumstances would include the protection of habitats, particularly grassland habitats, where it “may be the right thing to do” not to use land every year but only every two years.
Harty said that this would have an important role on “some of the more extensive grassland”.
The third change that is set to come about in this area relates to changes made to any land to convert it to an agricultural area.
If this work is carried out and results in damage to a habitat, the land in question would not be considered part of the eligible hectare the farmer would put forward.