Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue has been asked to commit to ensuring that every eligible farmer applying for the new Agri-Environment and Climate Measure (AECM) will receive payment in 2023 by Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) rural development chair Michael Biggins.

The AECM will replace the Green Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) as the voluntary agri-environmental scheme next year, with the first tranche of the scheme opening in the final quarter of this year.

A second tranche will open in early 2023 and it is the farmers in this tranche that Biggins’s comments reference.

Commitment needed

“I am calling on the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue to commit to every farmer getting an environment scheme payment for 2023,” said Biggins.

“There is a real income concern if there is a lag between GLAS and AECM, which will be caused by the tranche approach. Not accepting all participants into the scheme in 2023 is simply unacceptable,” he commented.

“GLAS and AECM payments are a critically important part of farmers’ incomes. It is essential that all applicants under all tranches receive a payment in 2023 and the scheme cannot be limited to 50,000 participants,” added the rural development chair.

Paying farmers

Biggins suggested two ways that the Department could allow these payments to be administered to the farmers caught between the two environmental schemes.

“This can be done by either paying an upfront payment in 2023 for tranche 2 participants similar to the way REPS payments were in the past. If that is not feasible, the 12,000 GLAS 3 participants must be rolled over for 2023,” he said.