Three new eco-scheme options to be provided

Three additional eco-scheme measures will be made available to farmers, on top of the five that have already been announced, Agriland has learned.

The eco-scheme will come into effect as part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) 2023 to 2027.

The three new measures are:

• Soil sampling and liming (where appropriate) – aimed at improving soil fertility. This action can be chosen once every three years in line with Teagasc guidance regarding intervals between soil samples being taken;
• Enhanced crop diversification – where a farmer has a crop diversification requirement, they plant a break crop (beans, peas, oilseed rape or oats) as their second or third crop. Where a farmer has a 2-crop or 3-crop requirement, the break crop must account for at least 25% of the arable area.
• Sowing of a multi species sward – on at least 6% of eligible hectares in the year the farmer selects this agricultural practice as one of their two eco-scheme actions.

It is expected that farmers will still have to select two options from the eight that are now available.

However, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is also proposing amendments to the original five, as highlighted in the sub-section below.

At present, the five options look like this:

• Space for nature – at least 7% of a farmer’s holding must be devoted to biodiversity, habitats or landscape features, building on the 4% requirement for all farmers already set under CAP Pillar I conditionality;
• Extensive livestock production – to promote traditional grassland farming practices at extensive animal stocking rates. To qualify, the stocking rate over the previous year must be between a minimum (0.15LU/hectare) and a maximum (proposed as 1.5LU/hectare);
• Limiting chemical nitrogen usage – this will promote low usage of chemical nitrogen. To qualify the farmer must not exceed a certain level of chemical nitrogen across their holding in the year of eco-Scheme participation (the proposed limit is currently 73kg/ha, though this may be amended as outlined below);
• Planting of native trees – to qualify the farmer must plant at least three trees per eligible hectare in the year of eco-scheme participation;
• Use of a GPS-controlled fertiliser spreader – this will promote the use of precision machinery for application of chemical fertiliser, thereby reducing inputs while also reducing environmental and climate impact.

Eco-scheme amendments

For two of these measures, amendments have been proposed whereby farmers can go above the requirements of one measure and then not be required to pick a second measure, and still get the full eco-scheme payment as if they had taken two measures (the proposed rate of payment is €74/ha, subject to scheme uptake).

So, for the ‘space for nature’ measure requiring a certain percentage of the land to be non-productive areas, farmers that devote 10% of their land to this purpose (the minimum figure being 7%) will not be required to pick a second action.

Similarly, for the ‘native trees’ measure (where the minimum number of trees to be planted is three per hectare), a farmer who plants six per hectare in a scheme year will not have to select a second measure that year.

A further amendment has been made to this measure that would allow farmers to plant 1m of hedgerow per hectare instead of planting three trees. In this case, a farmer planting 2m/ha of hedgerow will not be required to take a second measure to receive the full eco-scheme payment.

However, opting to take only one of these measures and going above and beyond its minimum requirements – rather than doing two measures – would only apply for one year.

In other words, the farmer would have to decide year-on-year (for the five-year lifetime of the scheme) if they wish to take one of these measures, or take two as was originally envisaged in the draft strategic plan.

It also appears that the department is considering – in consultation with the European Commission – allowing farmers who take the tree planting measure to plant enough trees in the first scheme year to meet their targets under that measure for the whole five years.

So, in other words, if this became an official amendment, a farmer could, in one year, plant a number of trees equal to three (or six) per hectare, multiplied by five (i.e. five scheme years), and have their obligation under that measure for the lifetime of the scheme completed in one year.

However, such an amendment is not yet officially proposed, it is understood.

The GPS-controlled fertiliser spreading measure is also being amended to include GPS-controlled sprayers where they are used to apply liquid fertiliser and/or plant protection products.

Some farm organisations are also thought to be calling on the department to introduce some kind of exemption to this measure so that not all fertiliser would have to be spread this way in a given year, particularly for less intensive farmers who spread fertiliser less frequently and in smaller amounts.

Finally, an amendment will be made to the chemical nitrogen limiting measure, so that the previous limit of 73kg/ha will now only be the lowest figure of several limits, depending on a farmer’s stocking rate, as determined by kilograms of organic nitrogen (N).

This would look something like this: