ICSA urges Coveney to reconsider cut to disadvantaged area scheme

FARMERS who have taken on extra land will be unfairly hit by the €30m reduction in disadvantaged area scheme payments, according to ICSA president Gabriel Gilmartin.

The ICSA leader is calling on Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to reconsider the proposed scheme changes to take account of farmers who have taken on extra land outside their own locality.

Mr Gilmartin said: “Many farmers, in the west of Ireland especially, who are farming on marginal land, and where there is very limited availability of good land, have tended to rent land further a-field and in some cases outside their own county.