The Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) rural development chairman has called on the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine to extend the timeframe for the application to the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) until the end of the year.
Michael Biggins said he is concerned that some farmers will loose out on an environmental payment because of the “pressure” to apply by December 7, to the ACRES scheme.
“I would hope to meet with Minister Charlie McConalogue as soon as possible. As I understand it the department is hoping to get 30,000 farmers signed up to ACRES but there is nowhere near this number yet because of the backlog that now exists.
“It all sounds like a bit of a mess and I think the minister should extend the ACRES deadline until the end of the year. Farmers and advisors are under pressure now to get the applications in and I fear that if there was a rushed job then some farmers could really loose out. These need to be comprehensive applications to ensure that farmers are getting the level of support they need,” Biggins added.
He believes a further extension to the deadline would give every farmer who wants to submit an application an opportunity to do so.
He has welcomed the fact that Green Low-Carbon Agri Environment Scheme (GLAS) payments have started and that €113 million in advance payments will be made this week to just under 32,600 farmers who are participating in the GLAS Scheme.
“This 85% advance payment, worth €113 million, is vital source of income for farmers. It’s important that all remaining participants are also paid without delay.”
He said it is important to remember that all GLAS contracts end in 2022 and will be replaced by ACRES from January 2023.
But Biggins said there should he is concerned that some farmers could lose out because of the design of ACRES.
“The minister needs to step up and ensure that no farmer suffers a loss in income due to the design of the new ACRES scheme. What could happen is that there may be some farmers who won’t get an environmental payment for two years the way this is currently set out.”
He said the tranche-based approach of ACRES needs to be re-considered because Budget 2023 will only be able to deal with 30,000 applicants under Tranche 1 and he is anticipating that the scheme will be “significantly oversubscribed”.
“What happens then to those farmers who want to sign up to an environmental scheme but cannot? There are ways around the current difficulties and if the minister were to come out and guarantee that there would be an environmental payment for those who want to be part of the scheme then that could help solve some of the problems,” he said.
Biggins said he is very concerned that the ACRES tranche-based approach could leave some farmers without an environment scheme payment for a year.
He believes the best way to avoid this by either offering a bridging payment to farmers who are not successful in tranche one of ACRES – that matches their previous agri-environment scheme payment – or by making an upfront payment in 2023 for tranche two ACRES participants, similar to previous Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS) payments.
“It is vital that no farmer who wishes to participate in ACRES is left without an agri-environment scheme payment for a year,” Biggins added.