New €10k REPS scheme sought by IFA

A PROPERLY funded environmental scheme – with annual payments of up to €10,000 per farmer – must be part of the new CAP (Common Agriculture Policy), according to Galway IFA Chairperson, Anne Mitchell.

She said that in the IFA’s latest submission to the Dept. of Agriculture on post-2020 CAP, the case for the proper funding of environmental schemes had been strongly put forward – she welcomed the inclusion of a ‘new REPS’ in the Programme for Government announced this week.

“The benefits farmers and agriculture provide in carbon sequestration must be recognised and rewarded in REPS- type (Rural Environmental Protection Scheme) scheme. Farmers will put in the work but the payments must be meaningful,” said Anne Mitchell.

She said that the IFA had strongly stressed to the Dept. of Agriculture the importance of ‘fully accounting’ for all rural carbon sinks such as grassland, hedgerows, crops, peatlands and forestry.

“There must also be recognition for the cyclical nature of methane in GHG emissions accounting methodology,” said Anne Mitchell.

She added that the IFA’s central message to Government was the contradiction between policies like Farm to Fork and the Biodiversity strategy on the one hand – and a proposed cut to the CAP Budget on the other.

“Extra asks have to mean extra funding. The next Government cannot stand over a situation where funding is cut – it has to be increased,” she said.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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