‘Huge interest’ in organic farm scheme

There has been a huge increase in the number of applicants for the new Organic Farming Scheme, it was disclosed yesterday.

Minister of state for agriculture Tom Hayes said 870 applications were received by his department by the May 29 closing date.

“To put this in context, since the introduction of the Organic Farming Scheme in 2007, the maximum number of applications received in any year was 380, in 2010,” said Mr Hayes.