Brendan Griffin
Question:350. Deputy Brendan Griffin asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine if organic farmers will be permitted to join the new REPS; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7771/21]
View answerThursday, 11 February 2021
Questions (350)
Written answers
The Programme for Government commits to rewarding farmers for adapting to more sustainable methods of farming and to the development of a new agri-environment scheme capable of delivering broad environmental and biodiversity benefits that will align financial supports with climate objectives. To advance this objective, funding has been made available for an agri-environment pilot project. It is proposed to do this as a results-based project in order to align it with the principles of the next CAP.
While the pilot will aim to test the results based model in a national context, it will also serve to broaden the number of farmers undertaking agri-environment actions and will not be open to farmers who participate in GLAS, Organics or are currently in an agri-environment scheme.
To inform the development of the project, a public consultation was recently launched and will remain open until 26th February. Final decisions on the structure and content of the pliot will be made after the public consultation process. A summary overview document and the online consulation survey are available at gov.ie - Public Consultation on Proposed Agri-Environment Results Based Pilot Project (www.gov.ie).