Farm payments should be phased out on drained peatlands and farmed wet peatlands should become eligible for payment under the CAP, an academic paper has recommended.

The paper, which looked at the potential of peatlands to sequester carbon, was sent to EU policymakers outlining what can be achieved on Ireland’s peatlands in the next CAP.

It also recommends that farmers should be paid for providing “ecosystem services”, that national peatland carbon credit schemes should be implemented and long-term programmes on rewetting introduced.

We’re not suggesting people are penalised. Incentives would come in for rewetting

Farmers should not fear the paper, but embrace it, Niall Ó Brolcháin, one of the authors of the paper, said.

“There is potential for people in certain areas to maintain or increase their income,” he said.

He said the recommendations have the potential to give farmers as good an income, if not better, than they currently receive.

On the phasing out of CAP payments on drained peatland, he said: “We’re not suggesting people are penalised. Incentives would come in for rewetting.

“If something has an incentive, people are more likely to go for it. We want to move away from drained peatlands,” he said.

Ó Brolcháin said that dairy farmers on reclaimed land are not at the top of the agenda, but those on marginal land are.

If we rewet 7% of the total agricultural land area, there would be a 32% reduction in agricultural emissions

“The key thing is to pick the low-hanging fruit.

“The first step is to incentivise farmers.

“What we’re trying to do is to balance agriculture and the environment in a way that makes sense for both.

“If we rewet 7% of the total agricultural land area, there would be a 32% reduction in agricultural emissions,” he said.

Teagasc estimates that there are 400,000ha of drained carbon-rich soils in Ireland.

Drained land

Some 21% of Ireland’s land area is peatland and Ó Brolcháin said in the region of 80% of these peatlands have been drained to some extent.

“We want to get two things done through this paper – restore peatlands and maintain or increase income for farmers.

“Carbon credits alone would be a good source of income for farmers,” he said, citing a project in the Netherlands which pays farmers €70/t in carbon credits for rewetting land, with the potential for farmers to make €30,600 a year.

He said such schemes need to be long-term, with the view that schemes would run for a minimum of 30 years.

Wetlands and payments

“Wetland farming is likely to be included in the new CAP. It will be a game-changer, which will maintain farm incomes.

“Many farmers in the west of Ireland have mixed land. Some of it is not great quality. In many cases, it’s a bit of a no-brainer, that land isn’t necessarily that good anyway, but there can be an income from it [through rewetting],” he said.

The position paper was put together by academics in the EU and is based on stakeholder analysis, including farmers, in around 18 different countries.