Support payments worth €14.3m are being made to farmers in the tillage sector. 

Some of the €14.3m funding is being used to support growers who were unable to harvest their cereal crops last year due to wet weather. 

The Unharvested Crop Loss Support Scheme announced by Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue in November 2023 will provide support of €1.67m to 236 applicants who are eligible under the scheme. 

The balance of the funding is being used as a once-off flat rate payment on the area of oilseed rape, winter and spring barley, wheat, oats and rye declared under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme in 2023.

The funding available for these one-off flat-rate payments is €12.63m and is being paid to over 8,400 growers. 

The €14.3m support package is comprised of €7.147m secured for the tillage sector under the Agricultural Reserve fund in 2023, matched with a top-up of a further €7.147m being made available from the once-off Ukraine-related funding provided in Budget 2024.

Challenges

Minister McConalogue said that tillage growers experienced "significant challenges" in 2023 with high costs of production, reduced output prices, and challenging weather conditions which affected crop yields. 

"Wet weather also affected the harvesting of crops with growers not being able to harvest crops in many areas," he said. 

He added that there was a great need to support the sector because it "is an important and integral component of the agri-food industry making a significant and valued contribution to the Irish economy".

Source - https://www.irishexaminer.com