Farmers growing crops will have a new option under GAEC 7, which deals with crop diversification under the current CAP, this year.

Under current CAP rules, farmers must comply with crop diversification requirements, commonly known as the two- and three-crop rule. As well as this, farmers with more than 50ha and less than 50% of their land in barley must carry out crop rotation once in four years.

For the 2025 season, farmers will have the option to fulfil GAEC 7 requirements by the current requirements of crop diversification and rotation or by crop diversification only. This means that you can comply with the rules as they stand, eg apply the three-crop rule and ensure there are two different crops in all fields in four years or you can just comply with the three-crop rule.

The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine told the Irish Farmers Journal: “There are no changes to the rules for crop diversification with regard to two-/three-crop rule, etc.

“The requirements under crop rotation also remain the same in that crop rotation for non-exempted holdings must be met by having at least two different crops to be sown at parcel level over a four-year period (2023 to 2026 inclusive) or satisfy this rule by growing secondary crops (50% of total arable area annually and across all parcels) in accordance with GAEC 7 requirements, but the change will allow the GAEC 7 requirements to be met by Crop Diversification only from 2025.”

New development

The new development effectively takes out the need to comply with a rotation on every parcel of land.

This is a good thing as some farmers may be implementing a rotation, but some land may not be suited to certain crops or they may have a market for a crop which the rotation rule would interfere with.

The news comes as farmers across the country plant cover crops and as some begin to plant oilseed rape for the 2025 season.

Force majeure was implemented this season to allow for an exemption from the crop diversification rules.

However, the Department noted: “Crop Diversification must be met annually from 2025. Crop Diversification on its own can satisfy GAEC 7 (Crop Rotation) from 2025.

However, if farmers opt for Crop Rotation in 2025 they will have to rotate crops at parcel level over the remaining period (2025 and 2026) and also annually meet the Crop Diversification requirements.

“The Department is engaging with the Commission on the details and will seek Commission approval for an amendment to Ireland’s CSP in due course to bring the changes into effect from 2025.”