Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has announced the commencement of the 2021 payments under year one of the Results based Environmental Agri-Pilot (REAP) programme.

A total of just under €10m will be paid to almost 3,000 REAP farmers with payments continuing on a regular basis. Almost 32,000ha are under the scheme.

Commenting, the Minister said:

“Through REAP, we are bringing greater environmental and biodiversity value to how we farm.

“This is part of our collective efforts to re-align Irish agriculture in support of our greater climate and biodiversity objectives.”

The two-year REAP programme was launched earlier this year to trial an agri-environment results-based scoring and payment system on farms across the country.

The project is testing the upscaling potential of the model for use in the next agri-environment scheme to follow on from the Green, Low-Carbon, Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS).

REAP will also help to identify the training needs of Irish farmers and advisors to ensure maximum participation in future agri-environmental schemes.

Achievements under the project to date include the environmental assessment and scoring of almost 32,000ha using a combination of the low-input grassland and multi species ley scorecards; and the training of over 400 farm advisors and REAP farmers in the results-based approach.

In conjunction with their advisor, REAP participants can undertake environmental improvement works to increase the environmental value of their land with the aim of improving their score in year two.

Participants can also avail of financial support for the planting of trees, hedges and hedge gapping where these actions are likely to improve environmental and biodiversity quality.