REPS ‘improving environment and increasing income of farmers’

THE Rural Environment Protection Scheme is providing a double dividend by improving the natural environment and increasing the income of participating farmers, Teagasc director Professor Gerry Boyle said yesterday.

He told the Teagasc national REPS conference in Tullamore, Co Offaly that the scheme, introduced more than a decade ago, has been a considerable success.

“There has been a lot of emphasis on the contribution of the scheme to farm income and the rural economy.