A meeting will be held next week to provide farmers with information on the Organic Farming Scheme, which is due to reopen next Monday, March 4.

The ‘information evening’, organised by the Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA), will be held next Thursday, March 4, at 8:30pm. The event will be held over the Microsoft Teams videoconferencing platform.

Farmers who are thinking about applying for the scheme are invited to attend.

Speaking in advance of the meeting, IFA Organics Committee chairperson Nigel Renaghan said: “The scheme last reopened in November 2018 for four weeks. 75% of applicants were refused admission due to a flawed points-based system that discriminated against smaller land-based applicants.

IFA has made it clear to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine that this cannot happen again.

“The organic sector is badly under-resourced and I know from speaking with farmers that there are huge information gaps,” Renaghan remarked.

Officials from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine will be in attendance during the meeting, where they will provide details on the scheme and the points system they apply to the applications.

There will also be officials from Teagasc, who will provide advice on steps to take for farmers considering converting to organic farming and how best to tailor their applications.

Furthermore, representatives from the national certification bodies – the Irish Organic Association (IOA) and the Organic Trust – will also be on hand.

“Switching enterprises can be incredibly daunting, so we will also have farmers who have gone through the process available on the night to share their experiences with people,” Renaghan explained.