‘Missed opportunity’ in new measures
Last week, the minister announced details of funding for CAP, including the Rural Development Programme 2015- 2021.
The provisions include:
nA 25% top up for young farmers up to 50 hectares equal to €64/ha;
n A national reserve for young farmers and new entrants;
nCapital grants of 60% for young farmers for targeted capital investments;
nSupport to partly offset set-up costs for collaborative farming arrangements.
Announcing that over €12.5bn in CAP and exchequer funding is to be allocated to the agricultural sector in the period to 2020, Mr Coveney highlighted the ongoing efforts to encourage the participation of young farmers in agriculture.
“It is vital that we do everything we can to encourage young people to take up a career in farming if the innovation and new ideas required to generate the smart, green growth envisaged under Food Harvest 2020 are to be realised,” he said.
“I have previously stated my strong commitment to action in this area, and am delighted to be able to introduce a range of measures across the direct payments regime and Rural Development Programme that I believe will attract and support young farmers.”
But Macra national president, Kieran O’Dowd, said it was a missed opportunity not to implement the full package of options available to effect real change and guarantee generational renewal.
While welcoming the European mandatory young farmer 25% top up in pillar one, he said drawing down the full 2% available will not be possible as it would require an estimated 12,000 young farmers to utilise the 2%.
Mr O’Dowd has called for the unused funds in the young farmer top-up measure to be ringfenced to support young farmer in other areas.
He welcomed the 60% targeted young farmer capital investment scheme on certain capital investment for start up young farmers; however, he believed this must be extended to all young trained farmers.
The core issue, according to Macra, is that Pillar Two still has not fully addressed key obstacles for young farmers starting up — transfer costs and conveyance, cost of stocking, and land improvement.
The importance of introducing an Installation Aid measure and following best practice in European agriculture for supporting young farmers has been ignored by the Department of Agriculture, Macra has claimed.
“The overall package for farmers is positive but the measures for young farmers are quite restrictive and therefore will be limited in their impact. This amounts to a missed opportunity for young farmers,” Mr O’Dowd said.
