Agriculture Minister praises pilot scheme
AGRICULTURE Minister McConalogue has said that he is “hugely excited”by the new pilot agri-environment scheme REAP which he officially launched last week.
The Results Based Environment-Agri Pilot Project (REAP) has been criticised by the farming organisations but the minister described it as “an ambitious, innovative and exciting new pilot programme”.
Opening the scheme, he said this pilot was one of the transitional measures for Irish farming using the additional funding secured this year for environmental initiatives. It is designed to pilot some measures now for possible inclusion later under the next CAP measures for Ireland from 2023 onwards.
Commenting at the launch, Minister McConalogue said: “REAP is an ambitious, innovative and exciting new pilot programme. “My very clear aim coming into 2021 for farming and the environment was two-fold, to roll-over our existing agri-environment schemes to give farmers certainty and to pilot new initiatives.
“I’m hugely excited about this REAP project as it helps us and farmers identify value we can bring to our next national agri-environmental scheme by trialing some measures now. It will identify the environmental and biodiversity returns from specific farm measures while delivering a key new incomes to farmers.
“It is the first time we have scaled up results-based environmental farming to this level and it will help incentivise farmers to deliver for the environment by ensuring that those with the best environmental scores receive the highest pay. The project will also support farm incomes by providing up to €12,600 to participating farms over the two-year term of their REAP contract.”
He said that land brought into REAP will be scored in year one to establish its environmental and biodiversity status.
In conjunction with their advisor, farmers will undertake environmental improvement works to increase the environmental value of existing farm features with the aim of improving the environmental score in year two. Farms with the highest scoring will receive the greatest payment. The Minister said that farmers can expect to receive an average annual payment of up to €4,700 with a maximum payment of €6,900 available.
Maximum payment is dependent on a farmer complying with all the detailed criteria as outlined in the terms and conditions of the scheme.
Minister McConalogue said that the results-based approach has the potential to deliver significant environmental and income gains and is expected to feature strongly as the flagship agri-environmental scheme under the new CAP. He said that REAP will provide an opportunity to test the results based model on a national basis in preparation for the next agri-environment scheme to follow on from GLAS.
“This measure complements very well the existing agri-environment measures such as GLAS, Organics and EIPs, all of which we have continued in 2021 to give farmers certainty during this transitional period. I secured an 11% increase in the Department’s funding as part of Budget 2021 to ensure that GLAS could continue for those farmers while delivering innovative pilot measures such as REAP.
“This record level of investment in on-farm agri-environment measures shows the commitment of this Government to achieving our goals of achieving our environmental ambition while investing in farm incomes. I would encourage any eligible farmer to apply and I look forward to working with all stakeholders on this initiative as we develop our schemes for the next CAP,” he concluded.