Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 5 April 2022
923. Deputy Matt Shanahan asked the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the number of farmers now signed to the new organics scheme; the amount of funding on average that is receivable by participating farmers (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17787/22]
View answerAt present, there are 1,734 participants in the Organic Farming Scheme. The 2022 scheme is currently open to farmers until 8th April. At this point, it is not possible to determine the number of eligible applications that will be received.
However, I am confident that the funding provided this year will be sufficient to allow all eligible applications to be accepted into the Organic Farming Scheme, which will assist in achieving our target of 7.5% of land cover under organic production as outlined in the current Programme for Government.
For 2022, I have secured a budget allocation of €21 million for the Organic Farming Scheme, an increase of €5 million from the previous year. This budget will support the maintenance of the existing contracts and allow for an additional 50,000 hectares of land under conversion.
While it is possible to provide the estimated number of hectares that can be funded, the number of farmers expected to participate in the scheme and their average payment will obviously depend on their enterprise and the size of the farms.. At present, it is difficult to determine the type of enterprises encompassed by these applications as farmers will be continuing to declare their parcels on BPS until the BPS closing date of 15th May 2022.
