Over two months after the first Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan (CSP) was launched in early August, the latest updated version has been provided to the CAP Consultative Committee and concerns have been raised again about the lack of support for young farmers.

Reacting to the proposals, Macra na Feirme president John Keane has highlighted what he describes as the “lack of progress in the document to address the main issues of concern for young farmers”.

“What has been presented in the latest draft of the CAP Strategic Plan has no further progress on the proposals outlined in early August,” he said.

“The proposals outlined have not progressed concerns raised by young farmers continuously over the past months in engagements with the Department [of Agriculture, Food and the Marine] and at the [agriculture] ministers CAP engagements in marts around the country.”

Access to finance for young farmers

According to Macra, not one intervention has been proposed to address the issue of access to finance for younger people working in agriculture.

The proposal includes €1.9 million allocated for advisors in a CPD (continuing professional development) framework to provide support to young farmers to access finance.

Macra has said that the question must be asked – is the minister serious that a €1.9 million fund for advisors is going to fill the €105 million finance gap for farmers as outlined by the 2016 Indecon Ex-ante Assessment of the Use of Financial Instruments within Ireland’s European Agricultural Fund,which was estimated to increase to almost €350 million by 2025?

“When young farmers look for investment support, the department’s proposals commit to the minimum support level of 60% grant aid,” Keane continued.

“The commission has outlined that member states may provide support up to 80% of investment cost, in this context our department’s proposals are at the minimum rate. 

“We have consistently called on the department to increase the investment support threshold up to 80% for young farmers,” the Macra president added.

Eco-schemes

The need for increased measures in the eco-schemes, to allow the opportunity for access for all farmers, has been raised by Macra na Feirme during engagements with the department, and by farmers, young and old, at all of the marts the minister has attended in recent weeks.

However, the association has said that no substantial amendments have been made by the DAFM since the initial proposals were published in August.

“We are now at the critical business end of the CAP Strategic Plan. The minster and senior officials must put the positive sentiment about the importance of young farmers into real actions and concrete proposals within the plan, to secure the future of the sector and young farmers,” Keane concluded.