The number of farmers who were opting out of REPS, the agri-environmental scheme, has been halted and the trend will be reversed, a Teagasc conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly, has been told.
A total of 45,500 farmers had signed agreements with the European Union to farm in an environmentally sensitive way in the first REPS scheme which ran between 1994 and 1999, Mr Eugene Ryan, the head of REPS (the Rural Environment Protection Scheme) with Teagasc, told the conference yesterday.
However, he said, for a number of reasons, especially the static levels of payment available to farmers in the scheme, the numbers of farmers taking part in the second REPS scheme dropped to 38,500 between November 2000 and March 2004.
Now, he said, the substantial increase in payments under the REPS 3 scheme gave a renewed impetus to participation levels and Teagasc had estimated that up to 55,000 farmer might join it.
"Allowing for a dropout of 3,500 participants from REPS 2, this means that the new scheme has the potential to attract 20,000 new farmer participants between now and the end of 2006," Mr Ryan said.
This was in line with earlier predictions about the take-up. The scheme is heavily funded by the EU and was part of the MacSharry reforms of the Common Agricultural Policy.
The enhanced scheme would be important in the coming years and Mr Ryan expected that more than 50,000 farmers would sign up because of the 30 per cent increase in the payments.
"For a 40-hectare farm, the basic REPS payment is now €7,500 a year for five years. Attractive alternative payments will also be available for farmers who adopt supplementary environmental enhancement measures."
He said farmers planning their future following the implementation of the radical changes, which were due to take place next year when the single payment system was introduced, must look seriously at maximum involvement in REPS.
Mr John Carty, of the Department of Agriculture and Food, told the 400 delegates at the conference that the revised REPS scheme had an important role in delivering the message to farmers that biodiversity was everywhere in the landscape and the continuance of some level of farming activity was important for its maintenance.
"Much of the biological diversity in Ireland has developed as a result of agricultural activity. As agriculture is the dominant land use, it is important that farmers realise the contribution they have to make in maintaining this diversity," he said.
REPS 3, together with the recent reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, would encourage farmers to alleviate the impact of intensive agricultural production systems on the environment.
"The new system will also improve the public perception of farmers as managers of our natural heritage," he said.
Dr John Feehan, of the department of environmental resource management, at University College Dublin's faculty of agri-food and the environment, said it was important to note that earlier techniques of land management became outmoded only because industrial interests were able to to exploit the modest advantages of a more intensive approach.
This was for reasons which had more to do with commercial gain than because it was inherently better.
"There is a widespread lack of awareness of the sophistication and productivity of best practice within the agronomic systems prevailing immediately before the triumph of agrochemicals," he said.