Flat rate Single Farm Payment

Since the last review of CAP there will have been effectively a closed shop in farming where new entrants are not welcomed or supported ,the age profile of farmers has increased to the detriment of the sector .A fairer system biased towards current production will bring a wave of talent and capital into agriculture which is out there at present looking for investment opportunities .The commodity boom has made agriculture attractive to capital but the arcane subsidy systems will turn this away.

A lot of people seem to be advocating going into forestry option.....it has one big drawback....any land put into forestry CAN NEVER be returned to any other agri use again.So after the first crop of trees are taken off in circa 15 yrs time....ya gotta go planting again.

sh1tstirrer wrote: »

What I was referring to is an index linked payment and inflation I never mentioned what things will be like in 2021 :rolleyes:

Well at least have a shot at what currency it might be in!!:D;)

I farm 50 hectares with no single payment and have done so since I missed the reference years as a late starter ,there are thousands of other farmers in a similar position ,this is utterly unfair.
There will have been 10 years by 2014 where farming was not an option for new business in this country ,think of the damage this has done.
The current system of historical payments is ludicrous,the Comissioner in his wisdom has spotted this ,coming from,a disadvantaged state and his proposals seem a fair way to put it right . I cannot emphasise how attractive agriculture would be to a huge number of people if it was percieved as a level playing field.

Immaterial to me but hope you are right....its a sin to see good land planted.

Indo has a take on this also. Taking from ICSA national president Gabriel Gilmartin "He added that the key problem was that the average payment per eligible hectare for Ireland, which is €270/ha, was too low for the vast bulk of committed and active farmers who typically depended on current payments in the order of €360-€600"

http://www.independent.ie/farming/news-features/cioloss-cap-vision-begins-to-take-hold-2874163.html

will a person who inherits a farm with entitlements, herd number the lot next year 2012 lose them post 2013 because they were not in his name this year 2011? i ask because in the cap proposals they say a person has to claim this year to be able to claim in 2014 . it would seem a bit un-fair on eg. father passing on farm to child . thanks for any replies on long winded question!

Lads, one thing you all need to realise is that none of the information the Journal is carrying is spin. The opinion is just that, but the facts are utterly verifiable. There has been a lot of confusion in this thread, so for the purposes of clarification
The national envelope is secure under the current proposals. This is because firstly the CAP budget is to be maintained (although inflationis constantly eroding it's value in real terms. Secondly, the average payments/ha of eligible land is the yardstick brussles is using, and Ireland's average of €270/ha is bang on the EU average.

The current system sees all our envelope for direct payments used for the SPS or SFP (Single Payment System, the official term now for what we still call the Single Farm Payment). Under the proposals, to take effect in 2014 if agreement is reached in time, the fund, and each farmers payment, will be split into four elements, or perhaps five.

1 The basic payment. 30% of the national envelope will be allocated to this, giving €70/ha for every eligible ha in the country. At present, there are around 400,000ha of eligible land more than there are active entitlements.

2 Greening. 30% of the fund will be devoted to this. It's envisaged that most Irish farmers will qualify, so you lose 30% of your payment, and get 30% of the average payment- another €70.

3 Historical payment The balance of the funds will be paid based on your historical payment. This will not be 40%, as there are another couple of elements that will be incorporated (see below) and which will be taken out of the pot before this fund is determined. The Commission would like to phase out this element by 2020

4 New entrant top-up. The Commissin want to set aside a significant fund to be allocated to young farmers by means of a 25% top-up in their first five years of farming. Assuming very little "old" entitlements, this is +25% of €140/ha, 35/ha for five years. To put this in context, if a new farmer has 100 acres, or 40ha, they would get 40 (ha) x 35 (€) x 5 (years) = €7,000. The old installation aid was worth more than this. I wouldn't be heading home for seven grand.

5 There is a provision in the proposals for up to 10% of the national envelope to be set aside for recoupled payments, but only for promotion of sensitive products environmentally sensitive production systems, marketing and farmer producer groups. The SCWS and the ewe maintenance payment may well be templates for the kind of scheme that would emerge under this.

The problem here is that it all gets very bitty. The current system is flawed, but at least you get a hit of money into your bank account in two payments. The dribble of various schemes, the various cross-compliance issues all of them could throw up, it could be a bloody nightmare.
These are only proposals, but the Fischler proposals were only proposals, and emerged from all the negotiations largely intact. Do not underestimate the Commission's ability to play 27 member staes and the Parliament off against one another. Everyone is opposed to the Ciolos reforms, but for different reasons. The lack of a coherent set of counter proposlas will see this set from the basis off all the negotiations.

I am close to all this, and I can tell you two things. Firstly, listen closely to the MEP's, particularly Liam Aylward and Mairead McGuinness. They understand the dynamic of all this, and are key in the EU parliament's ag committee. Jim Nicholson is the longest serving member of that committee, and is shrewd and worth listening to. Secondly, the farmers Journal know their stuff. There was a lot of disbelief of what was in that paper in the summer, expressed well here on this forum. It was based on the leaked documents coming out of Brussels, and has been proven to be accurate.