A claim that Irish farmers are turning their backs on the new Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS), under which they get grants for farming in an environmentally sensitive way, was made at the weekend.
Mr Michael Bergin, chairman of Irish Farmers Association's rural development committee, said only 8,000 farmers have joined the scheme since it was reintroduced at the end of last year - and they were farmers who had taken part in the first scheme.
He claimed the take-up of the scheme would fall far short of the 70,000 applicants the Department of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development had thought it would attract. He said it was clear that the REPS payment levels needed to be radically increased to attract more farmers to join it and to achieve the 70,000 target laid down in the CAP rural development plan.
Calling on the Minister, Mr Walsh, to institute a review of the scheme, Mr Bergin said this should involve increasing payments to farmers with less than 50 acres to £75 an acre and to pay £50 an acre for every qualifying acre between 50 and 150 acres.
He said the payments made to farmers had not increased since the scheme was introduced in 1994, while inflation had risen by over 20 per cent. Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, recently published results of research which pointed out the lack of attractiveness of the scheme for farmers with less than 75 acres, he said.
The research also highlighted the cost of participation and planner fees left little or no incentives for farmers in that category. It also showed that where farms were greater than 100 acres, the compliance costs were prohibitive.
The Department had put aside £170 million for the expected increase in the number of farmers it had expected to take part in the scheme, which was highly successful and attracted 30,000 applicants for the 1994-2000 round.
Under the terms of the scheme, farmers draw up a five-year plan and agree to use their land in an environmentally sensitive way by reducing stock, cutting back on fertiliser use, fencing off watercourses and maintaining hedgerows.
They also agree to tidy their homes and farms and make the landscape more attractive. The plan to which they commit themselves has to be drawn up by professional agricultural planners.