Pre-budget meetings between farm organisations and the Government are in full swing. These are a competitive environment in any year, with the wishlist far bigger than the Santa sack Jack Chambers and Paschal Donohoe hold in their hands.

In a year like this, with margins on the floor across almost all sectors, the pressure is enormous.

I heard a story from a recent meeting that encapsulates just how intense that pressure is. A grain farmer was highlighting the need for the Government to deliver on the €250/ha payment for tillage crops the IFA wants for the next five years. It would only cost €67m next year, not a high price to pay to rescue a sector – tillage – that is on the brink, he continued.

Another farmer intervened to point out that €67m mightn’t sound like much, but that this ask from the IFA formed only one part of the IFA’s budget submission, which would cost north of €1bn.

“I hope for your sake the tillage proposal is the IFA’s top priority, because the chances of getting it are not that strong otherwise,” the second farmer continued.

Tillage

With the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) being pulled for this year, the minister has part-funded the tillage payment. The SIM payment is, conveniently, €250/ha, although admittedly only on about 20% of the crops in 2023.

The wider point is true, though. Every sector of farming is competing for a limited budget allocation to agriculture, just as every sector of society and the economy is competing for support and funding from the limited overall budget.

Meanwhile, over at the European Commission headquarters, farmers can expect a Brussels budget bonanza, if Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski is to believed.

He has long talked about the need for the next CAP to address food security as well as farmer incomes and the environmental challenges of food production. In a wide-ranging interview on pages 26 and 27, he puts a figure on it – an extra 50%.

With the current seven-year budget being €387bn, that means an extra €193.5bn for the 2028-2035 period.

Before you get too excited, it has to be pointed out that Commissioner Wojciechowski is leaving office (just as we all got used to spelling his name). He will have no part in shaping that budget. His opinion won’t ultimately count more than that of a farmer in your local mart.

It’s good that he has acknowledged the scale of the challenge keeping farming across Europe above the breadline. It’s an awful pity he didn’t do it more forcefully when he was in power.