Support for farm expansion sought

THE IFA is seeking Government support for capacity building on farms to meet demands for greater scale and competitiveness following reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

President John Dillon revealed this yesterday in advance of a meeting today with Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy on IFA’s 2004 Budget submission.

Mr Dillon said it was clear that farmers must scale up production to remain viable, but this can only be achieved at a reasonable cost.

Fundamental to this is land availability and land price. This is one area the Government must facilitate and encourage for the national good.

“In industry, it is called capacity building and IDA job creation. There is no such provision for farmers who want to expand and develop.”

Mr Dillon said the next few years we will see the most radical policy shift for agriculture in the history of the EU. Decoupling of farmer income supports from production will accelerate structural change in agriculture.

“Government must implement policies which support farmers in meeting the demands for greater competitiveness in these changing circumstances.

Mr Dillon said the IFA is proposing that the age restriction of 55 years should be removed from the existing tax relief on rental income from farm land provided it is leased for productive farming and would augment the viability of the lessee’s holding. The amount of the relief should be increased to 10,000 for leases of five years or greater.