The reopening of the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) with €5m in additional funding is to be welcomed, however, the Department of Agriculture must now ensure that the scheme is properly administered. That is according to the IFA’s organic project team chair Nigel Renaghan who stated that any farmer that applies should be granted a place in the OFS. Renaghan also criticised the system used to select applicants in 2018.

Any farmers that have farmed organically since 2018 but were excluded from the scheme should receive retrospective payment, he added.

Prioritising sectors

It was announced on Wednesday by Minister for State at the Department of Agriculture Pippa Hackett that young farmers would be prioritised for entry into the scheme.

Should the scheme be oversubscribed by farmers, some sectors would be prioritised over others.

Supply and demand imbalances will be used to select the sectors which will be granted priority access to scheme places, should such a situation arise, Minister Hackett explained.

“In the event of the scheme being oversubscribed, I will be prioritising those sectors for which most market demand exists, but I also want to encourage young farmers to convert to organic farming so there is provision in the selection process to achieve this too,” she said.

Public procurement

“We are unequivocal on the reopened OFS – the Department must execute this correctly. It has to be properly administered; we cannot have a situation where so many farmers are rejected again,” said Reneghan.

He called on the Government to ensure that the procurement of food for public services reflects the Department’s targets for the area of farmland in organic production.

“It is vital that the State commit to public procurement of produce that fully aligns with their programme for Government target that 7.5% of land in Ireland is farmed organically,” he said.