The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers Association (INHFA) are calling for full stakeholder engagement to help find workable solutions to a series of ongoing issues that has dogged the ACRES Programme.
Speaking on this INHFA President Vincent Roddy detailed how “many farmers especially in ACRES Co-operation have become totally disillusioned with the scheme.”
This disillusionment he added “comes from a number of factors that includes
- Delays in finalising balancing payments to farmers
- Demands to repay monies when farmers weren’t given the opportunity to off-set possible overpayments through actions such as Non Productive Investments (NPIs)
- Delays in providing farmers with critical information relating to habitat scores
- The re-scoring of some commonages where farmers were not informed of the previous score and possible issues that led to a low habitat score. This has deprived farmers of being able to take action to improve their scores and tied them into a low score and payment for the coming year
- Concerns around the habitat scores and a lack of understanding and engagement around how these scores were established.
- No obvious mechanism for a speedy independent appeal for farmers that are unhappy with their habitat scores
- The inability to carry out actions applied for under the NPIs because the DAFM haven’t given approval for these actions.
- The hold-up in sanctioning Landscape Actions which will be a critical element to assist commonage farmers in improving their habitat score and overall payments.
- For organic farmers and those that were previously part of EIPs the ACRES payment model has significantly reduced their income.
- On the launch of the ACRES Programme farmers were sold a payment model based on a habitat score of eight that has since proven to be inaccurate.”
These, the INHFA President stated “are some of the main issues that continue to be outlined at meetings with farmers. However, there are other issues that individual farmers have detailed to us that are also critical and must be addressed if we are going to improve the scheme.”
As an organisation trying to address the concerns outlined, it has, stressed Roddy “become quite clear that the best way forward is by including all stakeholders in a round table forum. These stakeholders should include the DAFM, all CP teams, the ACA, Teagasc and farmer representative bodies such as the INHFA.”
We are, continued the INHFA leader “now calling on the Minister to establish this forum at the earliest possible opportunity but ideally by the end of October. Through such a forum, we are willing, with the other stakeholders, to work in finding solutions, whether that takes a day, a week, a month or longer.”
We must, he added, “recognise the need for radical action and understand that farmers won’t stay in the scheme if it doesn’t make financial sense and unfortunately for too many farmers that is the current situation.Concluding, the INHFA President stressed how “the environmental ambition detailed in ACRES will never be achieved if we don’t do right by our farmers which seems to be a point that some have lost sight of.”