Moving towards a market-focused system

THIS week the nation’s 120,000 farmers have been informed of their entitlements under the direct payments scheme.

Farmers have been given an estimate of how large or small their EU entitlements will be under the scheme which goes into effect on January 1, 2005.

This is the single biggest reform of the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) since the MacSharry reforms in the 1980s.