Farm organisations are at the final stages of agreeing a Charter of Farmer Rights with the Department. Given the complexity of compliance measures and the potential impact of any penalty on incomes, this is an extremely important negotiation. There needs to be full transparency around how farmers are selected for inspections and how the process should be conducted. The appeals process was criticised at a meeting of the IFA executive council on Tuesday. It is clearly not acceptable for farmers to be waiting indefinitely for appeals to be heard. The 90-day timeline proposed by the IFA should be more than adequate. There is also a clear need to address farmer concerns over the lack of independence of the appeals panel.