10,000 farmers to come out of reps this year

Oldtree

Minister Simon Coveney was interviewed on Newstalk this morning, at the Ploughing Championships. He said that 10,000 farmers will finish REPS this year with no replacement scheme contemplated to be in place until January 2015. His reasoning for not having an interim scheme to keep farmers in the fold, so to speak, was spurious, never mind the loss of revenue generated for farmers prepared to implement REPS guidelines on their lands. This to my mind can only represent a further ecological disaster pushed forward under the heading of "savings".

He also stated that 20,000 farmers are in AEOS 1 & 2.

Eoghan Barra

I'm a little ignorant about the details of this, Oldtree, but why can't all of those REPs farmers go in for AEOS? Are the eligibility rules much more stringent, or is it just a completely different beast altogether?

Oldtree

"The Minister for Agriculture says it does not make sense to put a temporary scheme in place to replace REPS and AEOS before the new CAP programme comes into effect.
Minister Simon Coveney says the new rural development programme will be in place at the start of 2015."

Minister Coveney indicated that there was no sense in a replacement scheme until the new one came along in 2015. I am no expert either, but AEOS 3 forms had to be submitted by 30th November 2012, and I can't find an AEOS 4.
http://www.agriculture.gov.ie/farmerschemespayments/ruralenvironmentprotectionschemereps/repsandaeosschemes/agri-environmentoptionsschemeaeos/

Here's the Newstalk link with the audio too:

http://www.newstalk.ie/AUDIO:-Simon-Coveney--Im-hoping-to-not-cut-existing-schemes-this-year

Eoghan Barra

Thanks Oldtree.

He talks about a "more comprehensive environmental scheme" being introduced in 2015. I wonder what he means by this? I wonder what the general future official direction of agricultural interaction with the environment is, or whether there there is even a thought out approach to the question at all?

For example, one of the conditions for receiving the SFP is that farmers must 'maintain their land in good agricultural condition'. This means, for example, removing any scrub (i.e. young wild trees) from their land to get their money. So while Europe makes a big song and dance about the importance of the environment, it is effectively penalising any farmer who allows natural regeneration of native woodland - or any other type of natural habitat - on his/her land. This also means that farmers are encouraged to grub out any wild (which is far more important ecologically than planted native woodland) mature native woodland on their land to extend the area for which they will be paid.

Oldtree

I think he is just kicking the can down the road. As for the environmental details I'm sure the lobby group will help him sort that one out :rolleyes:

Eoghan Barra

Oldtree wrote: »

As for the environmental details I'm sure the lobby group will help him sort that one out :rolleyes:

I like that!