The Irish Cattle and Sheep Farmers’ Association (ICSA) is calling for farmer equality in the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), with a focus on those farming less productive land.
ICSA president Dermot Kelleher said the association is concerned about the ongoing failure to treat all farmers equally in terms of land eligibility and conditionality under the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC).
“Farmers should not be penalised based on the ground they happen to farm,” he said.
Mr Kelleher described the introduction of GAEC 2 which covers peatlands and wetlands, as a “further retrograde step.”
“The key concern I have is that the extra GAEC provisions raise the bar for mandatory conditionality and increase the risk that peatland and wetland could be excluded altogether from CAP payments.
“But even if that is not the case, the provision makes it harder for farmers to not only farm but also to benefit from eco-schemes and from agri-environment schemes.”
Mr Kelleher said GAEC 2 puts farmers on peatlands and wetlands into a special category that disadvantages them compared to other farmers.
“The ICSA will fight to the bitter end to establish the principle that farmers on less productive ground actually need more financial aid. But they cannot do this if they are made financially unviable,” he concluded.
LSL News.