REPS 4 must have greener focus
But it must also give sufficient incentives to encourage farmers in the more commercial and productive areas to encompass environmental projects in their management practices.
Those are the views of Eugene Ryan, Head of REPS in Teagasc, who said that REPS 4 must address the challenge of being relevant to farming in both low output, high nature areas and also high output commercial farming areas. He welcomed the proposed opening up of the scheme to more commercial type farmers, with those farms where the organic nitrogen levels are over 170kgs per hectare being likely to qualify.
But he warned that the scheme will require more imaginative features to enable it to deliver significant biodiversity enhancements. Mr Ryan stressed the outcome from REPS 4 must be of sufficient importance to enable the scheme to be continued as a means of supporting farmers, and to produce an environmental product that will be of benefit to society.
Addressing the Teagac national REPS Conference in Tullamore, he said Teagasc believes this can best be achieved by including new measures related to land use and crop mix, livestock enterprise mix, the environment around buildings and linking in with wider Leader-type projects. He believes planners will be required to play a greater, more environmentally focused role in REPS 4.
The introduction of specific biodiversity options in REPS 3 are likely to be further enhanced and expanded in the scheme. These options, coupled with more targeted supplementary measures, are a mix of actions designed to be applied at farm level for the improvement of specific identified ecological and agronomic issues.
