THE NEW £50 million agri-environmental options scheme (AEOS) is a simple, efficient programme under which 10,000 farmers can gain €5,000 a year, Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith said yesterday.
Defending the plan, which will replace the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (Reps), Mr Smith said the AEOS would not result in the abandonment of farmland by farmers unhappy with the new programme.
“Having examined a representative sample of actual cases, and based on those cases, I am satisfied the majority of participants will be able to reach the maximum payment of € 5,000. I am confident that very many others will get very close to that figure,” the Minister said.
He said the AEOS represented a new approach to the rural environment, with farmers being paid to undertake identifiable and verifiable measures to improve the environment. It would be attractive to farmers while also delivering worthwhile environmental benefits.
He revealed he would be seeking changes to the draft programme after farming organisations had raised issues concerning the operation of the scheme, which will be paid for from EU and national funds.
He said he would ask the European Commission to increase from €75 to €150 per hectare the payment to farmers working on “Natura” land, the 1.1 million acres of designated areas where restrictions are placed on farming activities. He would also seek permission to allow farmers to use small quantities of chemical and organic fertilisers on species-rich grasslands, he said.
Mr Smith said he would also change the rules governing the mandatory plans that farmers would have to submit under the AEOS, and would lift the limit on the number of rare-breed animals a farmer could keep under the scheme. The plans required under the AEOS would be much simpler than the current Reps plans and, consequently, should cost farmers less.
The commission, he said, would not agree to a scheme covering entire farms but one where farmers would be paid for specific actions agreed from a list of options.
To qualify for the scheme, which opens on May 17th, farmers will have to choose activities covering biodiversity or water management or climate change.
He said a series of meetings had been arranged by the department for the 10,000 farmers whom he expected would apply. He said the department would spend €330 million this year on the thousands of farmers still in the Reps schemes.
The Irish Farmers’ Association president John Bryan said the scheme fell short of expectations but he acknowledged significant improvements had been made to the original proposals.
The president of the Irish Creamery Milk Suppliers’ Association, Jackie Cahill, welcomed the announcement and said he considered it as a first-phase continuation of the Reps scheme.