Changeover talk helped by top-up aid

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney has said the single farm payment top-up of €16,000 over five years to qualifying young farmers will force a conversation to take place in families, between parents and their sons and daughters, on handing over the farm and the decision-making that goes with it.

This is “exactly what we need”, he told Seanad Eireann during his presentation last week on the Common Agricultural Policy and Rural Development Programme.

He said the global trend to produce more food in a sustainable framework is a major part of his motivation to introduce a new generation of farmers who understand climate change, food security and the need to measure both, when producing food.