Over €12m Approved For Farmers To Grow More Crops

Tuesday, 22 March 2022 14:40

By Caoimhe Harney

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has impacted the supply of crops across Europe.

Farmers will receive €400/ha for every additional hectare of tillage they plant this year, in proposals to be put before Cabinet today.

It’s understood the Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue will bring forward a package worth more than €12m to support farmers to increase the volume of crops grown in Ireland.

The targeted intervention package for the tillage sector aims to support the production of more native crops and crops with a low demand for chemical fertiliser.

It comes as the Russian invasion of Ukraine impacts agriculture, food security, and global supply chains.

The war has compounded hyper-inflation in the price of: energy; feed; fertiliser; fuel; silage plastic; and other farm inputs.

Charlie McConalogue is bringing three initial measures to support farmers and the planting of crops.

The support package is being split into three initial measures:

Tillage Incentive Scheme will encourage farmers to grow additional crops such as barley, oats and wheat in 2022.
A payment of €400/ha is being proposed but may increase for crops such as maize and fodder beet, due to higher production costs.
The minister anticipates that a possible 25,000 additional hectares of these crops could be grown this year, leading to a total budget of €10 million.
Protein crops supports will reward farmers for growing more peas, beans and lupins.
A payment of €300/ha is being earmarked here.
It's proposed that combi-crops such as cereal/protein mix would be included in this initiative.
The target is to increase the volume of hectares under protein crops from 10,000 to 14,000.
Multi-Species Sward Scheme will see €2 million allocated to support the planting of 16,000 hectares of multi-species swards.
It is also proposed to extend the scheme to include red clover as an eligible crop.