A recent webinar profiled the range of proposals within Ireland’s new national Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) plan for the period 2023-2027.
The Teagasc tillage webinar featured a presentation by Cormac McGann, from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).
He confirmed that the new strategic plan represents a fundamental shift, relative to the EU support policies for agriculture that have previously been in place.
“A new performance-based approach will be adopted, which will be underpinned by a new delivery model,” he said.
“Member states will be asked to have their performance assessed on the level of output and results actually achieved and how their national CAP plans contribute to the targets set for the European Union as a whole.”
According to McGann, a more holistic approach will be taken with regard to the outworking of CAP rather than compartmentalising policy solely on the basis of separate Pillar I and Pillar II objectives.
“All national plans must have a set of common objectives, based on a series of social, environmental and sustainable economic goals for agriculture and rural areas,” he said.
“There must be a particularly strong emphasis on the environment and the attainment of climate change goals.”
McGann pointed out that a new ‘green architecture’ is at the heart of Ireland’s new CAP planning proposals.
“There is a mandatory baseline for all member states,” he said.
“On top of this there are two optional programmes. These allow farmers to take part in Eco schemes under the auspices of Pillar I or any of Ireland’s environmental and climate commitments under Pillar II.
“The latter measures will be linked to a new flagship environmental programme: the Agri Environment Climate Measure, or AECM.”
The Eco Scheme
The first of the new voluntary measures is the Eco Scheme. Its implementation is mandatory across all member states.
“At least 25% of all Pillar I funding must be made available under the Eco Scheme,” McGann added.
“It is Ireland’s intention to develop this agri environmental scheme for all farmers.
“Payments will not be tied to entitlements and a range of agricultural practices will be covered by this measure. Funding will be made available on a per hectare basis.”
“AECM has been designed to deliver significantly improved air, water and climate outcomes. This will be achieved courtesy of a habitats-based approach.
“AECM will be implemented on the basis of a general and co-operative approach.”
The DAFM representative pointed out that the co-operative elements within AECM will be offered to specific farmers in high priority geographic areas. All farmers will be eligible to apply for the general AECM measures.
Budget
Where financing is concerned, Ireland has secured a CAP budget for the period 2023-2027 of €9.83 billion.
Within this, Pillar I payments will total €5.97 billion, with Pillar II funding levels amounting to €3.86 billion. Of this latter figure, €2.3 billion will be made available courtesy of national funding.
The Pillar I measures include a Basic Income for Sustainability (BISS) payment, which replaces the current Basic Payment.
A new Complimentary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) payment, often referred to as front loading, will redistribute 10% of the direct payments’ ceiling, based on farm size.
In addition, the Complimentary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF) measure will dedicate 3% of the direct payments ceiling to help young farmers establish their farming businesses.
“Pillar I measures will also include a Coupled Income Support for Protein Aid scheme. This will add significantly to the current measures with funding levels increasing from €3 million up to €7 million per annum,” McGann added.
Entitlements
The event also included a presentation by Fran Morrin, who heads up the CAP Entitlements and Financial Controls division within the DAFM.
By way of an overview he confirmed the following points.
All entitlement values will change in 2023. Changes are planned for the clawback mechanism around sales of entitlements without land and short-term leasing of entitlements from 2023 onwards.
The direct payments’ ceiling is a closed fund. As a consequence, changes affected within it will impact on all other Pillar I measures.
The process of entitlement convergence will continue, reaching a projected 85% by 2026. Eco Schemes will account for a significant part of a farm business’ direct payments. So the decision to participate or not will have a direct bearing on farmers’ total direct payment amounts.
Morris further explained:
“We hope that all farmers will take part in the Eco Scheme measures. And they have been designed with this core objective in mind.
“The national plan remains at the proposals stage. Nothing will be finally agreed until the European Commission endorses the future farm support measures for Ireland.
“This will not happen until later in the year.”
Where entitlements are concerned, Morris indicated that there will be no reference year, as would have been the case in the past.
“The number of entitlements will stay the same. But the value of each will be adjusted to match the funding ceiling,” he said.
“Ireland must set a maximum unit value by 2026. Currently this stands at €700, if the greening contribution is included. Looking forward, it is likely that this figure will drop back to around €285 under the new support arrangements.”
“The process of convergence will continue but will be based on future entitlement values only. There will be no convergence linked to future Eco Scheme and young farmer payments.”
Where capping is concerned, Morrin confirmed that Ireland has proposed the maximum values that will be allowed under the new support measures. He also pointed out that only the BISS payment will be capped.
“The payment above €100,000 of BISS will be reduced by 100%. The payment above €60,000 of BISS only will be reduced by 85%,” he said.
“As a consequence, effective BISS payment into the future works out at €66,000/farm business.”
DAFM is projecting that around 200 farmers will be affected by capping with the total annual amounts capped being in the range of €1.5 million to €2 million. No differentiation will be made between owned and leased entitlements.
Potential impact of this CAP plan
Co. Laois tillage farmer Clive Carter reviewed the potential impact of the new CAP support arrangements. His current crop mix includes beans, oilseed rape, gluten-free oats, winter wheat and a number of cover crops.
He said that the working of the farm should remain pretty much as is over the coming years, adding:
“From a CAP point of view, we are facing three cuts. These are: an Eco Scheme cut; a CRISS cut and a reduction linked to convergence,” he said.
“Moving forward the plan is to maximise the potential of Pillar II. From an Eco scheme point of view, we should be okay. The farm already meets the 7% nature requirement.
“The farm also meets the proposed crop rotation measures for the future.
“Soil sampling can be used as a back-up in years when the crop rotation followed on the farm might not comply totally with the new support measures.”
Clive will not be using the Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) spreader option, as the farm is not large enough to justify this technology.
He will, however, seek to maximise the payments available from the protein aid scheme and the straw incorporation measure.
Clive is currently looking at all the options under AECM.
“I do like the aspect of some of the rotational measures, such as the potential to grow cover crops,” he said.
“I am also looking at the inclusion of arable margins. They should fit well within the overall management of the farm as I want to leave the hedges a bit longer and maybe cut them that little bit later in the season, perhaps January or February.”