Payments in respect of year two of the Knowledge Transfer Programme have commenced, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Michael Creed has announced today (Thursday, November 1).
The minister commented: “I am delighted to confirm that payments under year two of the Knowledge Transfer Programme have now commenced.”
Given the structure of the programme, payments are now rolling out on a sector-by-sector basis over the coming days.
In each case, there is an EU regulatory requirement that the payment for farmers in Knowledge Transfer Groups must be passed to farmers via the facilitator of their Knowledge Transfer Group.
As a result, individual farmer payments will issue to the facilitator who will then pass this payment to the farmer.
“Knowledge Transfer Groups have successfully been established across six different sectors, and they continue to play a key role in helping farmers develop the skills and knowledge which will enable them to address sustainability, productivity and competitiveness challenges,” Minister Creed added.
“In addition to helping to upskill farmers, the Knowledge Transfer group model has also been shown to have significant social benefits for farmers in terms of helping to address issues linked to rural isolation.”
The minister said: “I have always been very supportive of the Knowledge Transfer Programme.
The model used ensures that farmers can avail of expert advice from a trained facilitator, while also benefiting from the opportunity to share their experience and learn from each other in the group setting.
“This interaction between farmers has proven to be very popular and successful, and I am confident that farmers currently in Knowledge Transfer Groups will continue to see the very real benefits of this approach.”