Greening devil is in the detail

As greening is a new scheme, much of the details are being teased out by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) in conjunction with the EU, Teagasc, farm organisations, etc.

Therefore, definitive information about some aspects of the scheme has been slow to emerge. The DAFM has committed to publish a greening handbook in the coming weeks, which will provide more detail.

Hopefully, greening is now in the vocabulary of all tillage growers, who should be aware of how to fulfil the criteria, well before the spring cropping season. Despite some information that the scheme, or aspects of the scheme, will be suspended for 2015, the DAFM is adamant that the scheme must be implemented in full.