Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has published the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s plan to progress his stated objective of retaining Ireland’s nitrates derogation post 2025, with a number of elements involving nutrient storage solutions included.

Announced as part of Budget 2024, the 70% Nutrient Importation Storage Scheme (NISS) has been opened this week. This grant is directed at farms with a P and K allowance that will allow them to import slurry from other farms.

While a certain amount of this export/import of slurry already happens, it is hoped that increasing numbers of farmers will avail of this option.

This scheme was partly introduced for farmers in derogation who saw the nitrates rate cut from 250kg N/ha to 220kg N/ha, or farmers who are close to the 170kg N/ha stocking rate that puts them in derogation.

The thinking is that creating more storage on recipient farms will allow for greater volumes of slurry to be exported and a more targeted approach to spreading to coincide with suitable weather and grass-growing conditions. While the Department has said that the scheme is open for applications as of 19 August, no changes appeared on the AgFood website as of Tuesday 20 August.

Commission seeks 60% grant and separate ceiling

A sanction is being sought from the Commission to apply a 60% grant and separate ceiling of €90,000 for farmers for nutrient storage from January 2025.

This will be of interest to a greater number of farmers than the above importation grants, as farmers will be able to avail of a higher grant rate for storage of their own slurry.

Standard grant rates sit at 40%, with those availing of young farmers, women farmers or the organics capital investment schemes currently availing of this higher grant rate as they stand.

Value

What will be of huge interest and value to farmers is the separate ceiling for slurry storage.

Currently, both slurry storage and animal housing fall under the Animal Welfare and Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS), with the result being that the creation of slurry storage at scale can swallow large chunks of the €90,000 ceiling (€160,000 for companies), leaving little to no grant (depending on project size) for the animal housing element.

A separate ceiling for slurry storage will give greater grant aid for overall projects with separate ceilings.

Many farmers would have expected this to come sooner, having been announced in last year’s budget, with it now likely not delivered for almost 15 months after it was announced.

The net result is that many farm projects have been delayed and will be delayed even further until the scheme opens for applications.

A new and separate “exempted development” threshold for standalone nutrient storage is also set to be provided for as part of a review of planning regulations, following the enactment of the Planning Bill.