Macra: Active farmers not getting full credit under CAP

Reform of the Common Agricultural Policy still lacks an effective mechanism to deliver the single farm payment to active farmers, Macra na Feirme has claimed.

Macra’s agricultural affairs committee chairman Sean Coughlan said it is considering a proposal that those who are farming their land less intensively than the reference years of 2000 to 2002 should not be rewarded with a full payment in the new CAP.

He said a system where farmers must maintain 70% of their farming activity since the reference year to maintain their level of single farm payment under the new CAP would reward active farmers.