Farm schemes expected in next two months

Late March is the likely opening date for important multi-annual farm schemes such as the beef data and genomics programme, farm improvement grants, support for collaborative farming, discussion groups, and LEADER grants.

The €1.4 billion GLAS agri-environment scheme is predicted by Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney to open for applications somewhere between the middle and the end of February, with other schemes opening about one month later.

“I would still be hopeful that we can work to the timetable I committed to last year, which was to have people enter GLAS in October so they can get payments for the last three months of the year,” Mr Coveney told the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine last week.