Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has confirmed that there will be a second Tillage Incentive Scheme in 2023.
Speaking at the 2022 National Ploughing Championships today (Wednesday, September 21), the minister said that the scheme will be allocated €10 million in funding, the same as the inaugural scheme this year.
Where farmers who participated in this year’s scheme maintain the land they put under tillage into 2023, they will be paid €200/ha on that land.
As well as that, the €400/ha rate for new land put under tillage will again be in place under the new scheme for next year.
According to the minister, the tillage sector has grown by between 6% and 7% this year on the back of the Tillage Incentive Scheme.
The current scheme closed for applications in July.
Under the Tillage Incentive Scheme, letters were issued to eligible applicants. These letters were based on the crops declared on their 2022 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application.
These declared crops are the basis for entry into the scheme.
The aim of the initiative is to incentivise farmers to grow more tillage, in the wake of food security concerns brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In 2022, there were two key eligibility requirements:
- There must have been an increase in the total tillage crops grown on the holding in 2022 versus 2021;
- The land on which the additional eligible crops are grown must have been in grassland or another non-tillage crop.