REPS 4 is politically correct
Farmers have to be seen to play their role in environmental protection, as climate change strikes home with a vengeance.
Some 60,000 farmers have already been doing more to protect the rural landscape, increase biodiversity, and improve water quality, by taking part in the Rural Environment Protection Scheme. Now, they can make an even bigger effort, by availing of more than €400m annually in aid for the next seven years, co-funded by the EU, to help them enhance the environment through a range of actions — including reduced use of fertilisers and pesticides, contributing to lower greenhouse gas emissions, thus slowing the climate change which farmers here experienced themselves when much of the country was hit by June and July rainfall between two and half and three and a quarter times the normal levels.
