This article is from page 4 of the 2013-05-07 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 4 JPG
A GROUP of Clare farmers have proposed radical changing to the Common Agriculture Policy (CAP), which they believe could prevent as disastrous fodder shortage, like the one seen over the past month, from happening again.
The United Farmers Association (UFA) have gained much support in Clare since they formed a number of months ago.
The organisation supports a redistribution of the money paid to Irish farmers under CAP with smaller farmers, such as those in Clare, ben- efiting more, while larger farmers, more common in the eastern counties, would get proportionately less.
Clare spokesperson for the UFA, Joe Corbett, has proposed a change to CAP regulations which he feels would unlock large landbanks of good farmland which are currently not being used to its potential.
The scheme involves allowing inactive landowners to lease their land with their Single Farm Payment (SFP) being split between the landowner and the leasing farmers.
Currently landowners will lose their SFP if they lease their land making leasing unattractive for both parties.
This system, according to Joe, would allow both parties to share the benefits of increased production on the land as well as sharing the SFP associated with the land, a system which he believes would lead to an increased production on Clare farms.
“Farmers who want to retire or maybe want to get employment off the farm need to be incentifised to lease their land. They can’t be expected to lease their land for less than they would get if they had the minimum stock levels as set out under the SFP,” said Joe.
“A person in this position will get 50 per cent of his SFP and get more than the remaining 50 per cent from the farmer who is leasing the land. The leasing farmers will then get 45 per cent of the SFP for the land, which will subsidise the cost of leasing, but he will be able to more than make this up from increased productivity on the land.
“This idea will unlock the production potential that is in this land and it will see the land owner and the active farmer sharing that potential.”
The UFA scheme would also see the remaining five per cent of the SFP used for an emergency hardship fund to be created to help farmers in times of extreme hardship, such as the recent fodder crisis.