Dis advantaged area scheme payments to start issuing today.

The Dept. of Agriculture, food and the Marine have announced that the first payments under the 2014 dis-advantaged area scheme will issue today.

Proposed New Agri Environment Scheme

Recent developments mean that some of the information in this post is out of date. See our post on GLAS, the new agri-environment scheme dated 8/7/14 for the more up to date position.

 

 

GLAS – How will it work?

By Richard Halleron on January 15, 2014

first published by in Agriland on Jan 15 2014


https://www.agriland.ie/

The acronym GLAS stands for Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme. The new initiative ties in with the green vision for Irish agriculture as contained in Food Harvest 2020 and as promoted by Bord Bia in the Origin Green campaign.

The scheme is green as it preserves Ireland’s traditional hay meadows and  low input pastures; low-carbon as it retains the carbon stocks in soil through margins and habitat preservation and practices such as minimum tillage and agri-environment as it promotes agricultural actions which enhance the rural environment.

According to the consultation document published by the Government yesterday, relevant rural development priorities  for GLAS include restoring, preserving and enhancing ecosystems.

Promoting resource efficiency and supporting the shift towards a low carbon and climate resilient economy are other key priorities, as is knowledge transfer and innovation.

According to the Department of Agriculture, the inclusion of an agri-environment climate measure is compulsory under the rural  development regulation. The proposed scheme will deliver overarching benefits in terms of the rural environment whilst addressing the issues of climate change mitigation, water quality and the preservation of priority habitats and species.

Courtesy of its EU obligations, Irish agriculture must meet the twin objectives of environmental sustainability and productivity gains as set out in Food Harvest 2020 in the years ahead. In order to contribute to the mitigation of the environmental impacts of Food Harvest 2020, GLAS has been designed to achieve the delivery of targeted environmental advice and best practice at farm level. It aims to work within the framework for environmental sustainability as set down by key EU Directives and national and international targets. These are: the EU Climate Change and Renewable Energy Package and the Kyoto Protocol; the Water Framework Directive, the Groundwater Directive and the Nitrates’ Directive; the Habitats Directive, the Birds Directive and the European target of halting the loss of biodiversity by 2020.

With regard to its envisaged structure, the proposed minimum contract under GLAS will be five years. Payments for Natura sites are included in the general scheme under specific actions (Farmland Habitat Conservation,  Conservation of Bird Species, Uplands Conservation). All actions must go beyond the baseline for the Single Payment Scheme.

So what are the core requirements for GLAS?

In the first instance all farmers in the Scheme must comply with a number of core requirements. These aim to ensure that farmers have an enhanced level of environmental knowledge, evidenced by records kept of actions delivered and underpinned by a plan for nutrient resource efficiency on their holding:

In the first instance,  A Farm Advisory Service (FAS) approved agricultural planner must prepare the GLAS application.  A Nutrient Management Plan for the whole farm must be in place before payment issues.  Knowledge Transfer by means of a training course for specific actions complemented by on-line demonstrations/advice on good environmental practices must be undertaken.  There wil also be a record keeping obligation.

A two-tier entry mechanism is envisaged for GLAS . In Tier 1 priority will be given to farmers who choose at least one action from a Priority list in order to join the scheme.  Some of these actions will be mandatory for farms in certain locations: e.g. farms with watercourses must choose the protection of watercourses action.  Those in freshwater pearl mussel areas must address that issue. The ‘Uplands Conservation’ action will require that farmers form a grazing association and apply as a collective, with at least 80% of the farmers on the commonage signing up.

Once all places under Tier 1 have been filled, and if there is capacity, a selection process  will be used to allow other farmers who have chosen actions from the General list to join  the Scheme. The selection process will apply weightings in terms of environmental benefit  to actions and a scoring system will be used to allocate places.

Farmers can choose additional actions from the Priority list to bring their payment to the maximum of €5,000. Planners will be required to advise  farmers to choose actions most suitable for their farms and which deliver the greatest  environmental dividend. New actions specifically for tillage farmers have been included in order to encourage uptake and to increase the number of climate change options.

Heritage Council Proposal for objective led Agri -Environment Scheme

The Heritage Council have recently published their proposal for an objective led scheme for uplands and certain other key habitat types. The proposal was produced by Patrick McGurn of EFNCP (European Forum for Nature Conservation and Pastoralism) and Patrick McGurn of Sligo IT. Patrick has been done a lot of work in developing the High Nature Value concept for agri environment in Ireland and played a key role in establishing the AranLife project. James Moran was centrally involved in the development of the Burren Farming for Conservation Project and has demonstrated remarkable initiative in focussing attention onto commonage specific issues.

This publication sets out fully the ideas that James outlined at the IFA sponsored Hill Farming Forum held in Tuam in September last year. It is a well thought out proposal that could serve as the basis of a new uplands agri environment scheme. It is vital that a future uplands scheme is flexible and site specific and as the authors have pointed out this does not necessarily mean complex and difficult to administer. The alternative which should be resisted at all costs is a rigid AEOS type scheme that attempts to encompass all commonages in a one size fits all straightjacket.

The full report can be downloaded through the following link.

http://www.heritagecouncil.ie/wildlife/news/view-article/article/heritage-council-urges-new-approach-to-agri-environment-programme/?L=yxwqqhpzuuasnvf&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=1146&cHash=28f0e9055a4c0874f02b924ad9af0f7d

Teagasc Hill Sheep Conference

The Teagasc Hill Sheep Conference is to be held in the Westlodge Hotel, Bantry, Co. Cork on the 22nd January. It is a STAP approved National event. The programme is very interesting and should be of value to anyone with an interest in Hill Sheep farming. Of particular relevance to commonages is the attendance at the conference of Mr Liam Fahey from the Dept. of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Mr Fahey has played a central role in highlighting the potential problems that may face the eligibility of commonage lands for direct payments in the future. He is also likely to have a key part to play in the development of a strategy to ensure that commonage land is brought back into GAEC and that future payments can be guaranteed.

I hope that he will be in a position to announce the start of the engagement process with commonage stakeholders at this conference as time to develop an agreed approach is rapidly running out. The operating programmes for the next RDP will be agreed with the EU Commission by the end of the summer. If a workable commonage solution is not in place by then it will be too late. This solution will not fall into place overnight and if there is to be any chance of success it must start this month.

You can download the flyer for this event from the following link.

http://www.teagasc.ie/events/2014/Hill%20sheep%20flyer%20web.pdf

REPS/ AEOS Payments to begin.

The minister for agriculture has announced that 50 million euro will be paid out to farmers in REPS 4 and AEOS 1 and 2 next week. This represents the initial 75% payment, it is hoped that the remaining 25% will be paid in the near future.