CAP after 2020 has to fit small Sligo farmers
THE future of the Common Agricultural Policy ( CAP) after 2020 was also up for discussion at the latest European Committee of the Regions ( CoR) meeting in Majorca.
CoR is preparing a working document on the sometimes contentious issue for consideration by the EU.
Cllr Jerry Lundy had the opportunity to address the 80 members present last Thursday week. During his contribution to the debate he made reference to his own upbringing on a typical small farm in the West of Ireland. He told delegates: “As somebody who was reared on a small 40 acre farm in South Sligo, I’m speaking on behalf of the small farmer. A former EU Commissioner who came from county Sligo Ray MacSharry always spoke as a commissioner about helping the small farmer and family farms.”
He added: “Small farmers are producers of high quality food; they are not book keepers. Post 2020 the cap must fit young farmers.”
He pointed out that many farmers, particularly those living in disadvantaged areas are disillusioned with CAP. Cllr Lundy posed the question: “Why are young people leaving the land?” He maintained: “The reason being that 74 percent of CAP goes to 12 percent of the farmers in Ireland. The big farmers in the south of Ireland where the land is good and the weather better could survive without CAP payments.
“The common agricultural policy was originally introduced to help the smaller farmers in peripheral regions like South Sligo and I hope that when this document from the Committee for the Regions goes to the European Union, they will look at helping the small farmers from the farmers markets to the organic producers.”
Then followed a stark warning from Cllr Lundy who predicted: “It’s very simple. If the next generation leave the land what will happen to rural Ireland? Will it be all forest plantation or will we go back to the days of the landlord when one landowner would own many farms. That is my fear.
“Farmers are the producers at the end of the day. They know the animals, the land and the crops but they are burdened with book- keeping.
“One small farmer told me recently that every official that comes to his farm has 10 or 12 folders under his arm telling him what he can and can’t do. There is too much red tape and restrictions. If we lost the farms, then the shops go, pubs go, football teams go until the parish as we know it in Ireland is gone forever.”