Tillage farmers have welcomed the latest Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) simplification developments.

The European Parliament and the EU Council presidency have reached a provisional agreement on simplifying the CAP.

The provisional agreement seeks to “improve” the following elements of the commission proposal:

Give flexibility to member states to decide to what extent partially organic farms could be considered to fulfil certain environmental standards, the so-called GAECs (good agricultural and environmental conditions);
Improve the possibility for farmers to benefit from risk management tools;
Increase the percentage rate for advanced direct payments.

Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) grain chair Kieran McEvoy, said the move to exempt farmers with an area below 30ha from GAEC 7 crop diversification or rotation regulations is a positive development.

“While this decision is subject to final ratification by the EU Council and Parliament, it would seem the current requirement to grow two crops on holdings under 30ha will now be removed,” McEvoy explained.

“Our tillage area has contracted significantly in the past decade and some of the exodus has been from smaller farmers who didn’t wish to grow more than one crop.

"Hopefully this will help encourage these farms to consider producing tillage crops again."

Implementation

The IFA had raised the GAEC 7 issue with Irish MEPs to ensure the two-crop rule was dealt with under the simplification proposals.

The IFA also proposed that the threshold for implementation of the three-crop rule should be raised from 30ha to 50ha, and said it will continue to raise this "ongoing issue".

"Once fully approved, it is vital that the Department [of Agriculture] implement these regulatory changes in a timely manner to ensure they are in place ahead of the 2026 spring planting season," McEvoy added.