An Ulster Farmers’ Union arable delegation, led by UFU President Ian Marshall and Deputy President Ivor Ferguson, have met with Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill and senior DARD officials to discuss the issues currently faced by farmers on the implementation of greening and the lack of information coming through from Europe, which is needed urgently if farmers are to comply with the new ‘greening’ requirements.
UFU President Ian Marshall said; “We remain extremely concerned by the lack of understanding from farmers on the details and implications of greening. We understand from our meeting with the Minister and her senior officials that they have recently obtained more clarification on several outstanding greening queries, particularly around hedges and fallow land, following their meeting with European Commission officials last week. The Minister informed us that once they receive final confirmation from the EU they will then begin to communicate this information out to farmers and we stressed to the Minister the importance of doing this so that farmers can begin to meet the requirements set by the European Commission. DARD plans to issue letters to those who they feel may have to meet the more specific greening requirements and also hopes to publish related information in the press and hold further public meetings on this specific issue.
“We also stressed that farmers should not be penalised for failing to meeting the new greening requirements until the details on greening are completely finalised and properly communicated to and understood by farmers. We highlighted that this is a common position being taken by virtually all farming organisations throughout the EU and urged the Minister to press for this in Europe.”
Ian continued; “With representation from both the Union’s potato and vegetable sectors present at the meeting we raised the issue around shared farming arrangements which is an option available to help address the land availability difficulties being experienced by some specialist potato and vegetable growers. DARD is currently taking legal advice on how they can approach this under the reformed CAP.
“Lastly, given the current general market conditions for agricultural products we again raised the issue of earlier payments of the single farm payment to assist farmers with cash flow, however the Minister outlined that this would not be possible in 2014 but assured us that efforts will be focused on achieving DARD’s target of finalising 93% of SFP payments in December 2014.”
