There is concern among the organic farming sector that the flagship scheme for that sector will not reopen to new entrants this year.

These concerns emerged as the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed to Agriland that the budget for the scheme under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) has now been fully allocated.

The Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) is funded through Ireland's CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) for the current CAP, which runs from 2023 to 2027.

The money allocated to the OFS for that five-year period from the CSP was €256 million.

The department said that, between 2023 and 2026 (inclusive) the number of farmers in the Organic Farming Scheme grew from 2,090 to 5,573.

This represents an increase in the number of scheme participants of 266% over those four years.

The number of participants included 260 new entrants to organic farming in 2026.

New entrants to the OFS are given a five-year scheme contract, with the first two years seeing higher per-hectare payment levels to support the initial conversion to organic farming.

As well as that, participation payments are paid to OFS participants to cover administration costs.

These payments are €2,000 for the first year of the contract, and €1,400 for subsequent years, with these figures potentially tripling in the case of farm partnerships.

The department highlighted that the OFS is part of the CAP Strategic Plan, with a commitment of €256 million for the scheme.

"Based on applications in the scheme and associated five-year contracts, this funding is fully committed," the department said.

In previous years, the OFS would open for applications in October or November.

The scheme contract for those new applicants would then commence from January 1 of the following year, from which point those applicants would become eligible for payment.

In other words, the first payments received by a new applicant come from a budget allocated for the year after they make their application.

The department's comments would suggest that there is no money in the OFS budget at present to make payments on contracts commencing in 2027, which would - unless new money is allocated from somewhere - likely prevent the scheme from opening to new entrants in October or November this year.

However, the department added that decisions on budget allocations for the scheme in 2027 will be finalised as part of the wider Budget 2027 negotiating process.

Budget 2027 will be announced on October 6.

Sources in the organic sector told Agriland that the issue of whether or not the OFS will reopen to new applicants this year is a topic of continuous discussion at the Organic Strategy Forum stakeholder group.

However, that group has not yet received confirmation from the department on the fate of the scheme for 2027.