DAFM asked to review new AgFood portal after farmer complaints
The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) rural development chairperson, John Curran has called on the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine (DAFM) to review their revamped AgFood portal as challenges mount.
He said: "We are getting calls from farmers the length and breadth of the country that are having issues getting into AgFood, particularly those in poor coverage areas who can't get their access tokens on time, or it's sent to their son or daughter who signed in before them.
"The old log-on system was a bit cumbersome, but it was working, so changing it has to be questioned."
Curran explained that there are some positive aspects to the portal in terms of its look and feel that should be acknowledged, but said they are no use "if you can't get into the system in the first place".
He highlighted: "Farmers can't be locked out of the system. Agfood is becoming more and more important to the running of the farm, both from a compliance and DAFM communication perspective.
"The whole log-in component needs to be looked at again, and a resolution found quickly.
"The IFA has raised this in the DAFM working group and we pointed out on more than one occasion that these changes would make AgFood inaccessible for a large number of farmers.
"We have provided alternative solutions which we will be putting forward again at upcoming working group meetings", Curran added.
DAFM launched the new platform at the National Ploughing Championships, with the aim of making it easier to access, understand, and use DAFM's online services.
Replacing agfood.ie, MyAgFood.ie is the new online platform through which farmers can receive important updates from the department and apply for schemes in one place.
Features on MyAgFood.ie for users include:
- A personalised homepage - Users will receive the information relevant to them and their farm;
- Viewing upcoming animal tests - Users will be able to see all mandatory and private tests for their cattle;
- Receiving an instant overview of animal numbers - Users will be able to access a breakdown of herd by species, category (beef/dairy), age and a date forecasting tool to assist them in checking the age groups of their animals at a specified future date;
- Viewing projected nitrates figures on their farm - This will assist farmers in taking action to reduce levels, if required.
Agriland spoke to DAFM's principal officer of schemes, land, and digital services, Nicola Roche at the official launch to find out why the department decided to rebrand the platform.
She said: "agfood.ie has been around 15 or 20 years and has been very functional but, following on from the government policy of better digital services, we're trying to be more user-friendly.
"In the department, we have quite a large volume of data and we felt it could be presented better to the farmer, making things easier."
The new website features a new two-factor authentication, which involves inputting a designated phone number to receive a one-time code via text message which farmers and advisers will then have to input to access the website.
