■ Climate change action;

■ Protect food health and quality;

■ Rebalance power in the food chain;

■ Increase competitiveness;

■ Ensure fair income;

■ Preserve landscapes and biodiversity;

■ Support generational renewal;

■ Vibrant rural areas.

 

One big question is, how do farmers who have leased out their land and Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlements — so called ‘armchair farmers’ — fit in?

The cold facts are that armchair farmers do not meet any of the nine objectives of EU CAP, so how will the Department of Agriculture deal with this thorny and political issue?

Agriculture Minister Charlie McConalogue and his Department have been evasive on the matter, suggesting that the balance will be tilted in favour of ‘active farmers’ — those who are actually farming the land.

The CAP has been in place since 1962 and it has evolved a lot over the years. This time each member state has more scope (termed ‘greater subsidiarity’) to tailor the strategic plan to meet the needs of the particular region or country.

This provides an opportunity for the Department to tackle the armchair farmer issue in this country for once and for all.

Here is my proposed solution to the issue:

■ All BPS entitlements cease on December 31, 2022.

■ Farmers who have BPS entitlements leased out with land on long-term leases are not allocated new Basic Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (BISS) entitlements, regardless of whether they are still farming some land.

■ The entitlements subject to lease can be sold to the leasee without clawback or to a third party with a 20pc clawback before May 15, 2022.

■ The sale of entitlements will not be subject to Capital Gains Tax (CGT).

■ Farmers who are short of land and have surplus BPS entitlements can also sell their entitlements, but are subject to 20pc clawback and CGT.

■ Active farmers who are allocated new BISS entitlements in 2023 but decide to lease out their land and entitlements in the 2023-27 CAP period will not get an allocation of entitlements in subsequent CAP reforms.

■ Farmers who have to lease out their land and entitlements for force majeure reasons and are forced to sell their entitlements as a result should get preference for an allocation from the National Reserve in the subsequent CAP period.

This plan will provide clarity to both armchair farmers and their tenants for the remainder of the current CAP regime, and more importantly for subsequent CAP regimes.

In the present scenario some farmers who wish or need to retire from farming are holding on and continuing to farm against their will, until they get a new allocation of BISS entitlements.

Some of these farmers are continuing to farm against medical advice and damaging their health, and often running down their farms.

One farmer recently told me he was “sad and frustrated to see his farm growing up around him”, referring to weeds and overgrown hedgerows he was struggling to maintain. This situation has to be addressed.

However, the really frustrating scenario involves the farmers who are pretending to farm. Many farmers will go to the ends of the earth to protect their ‘farm payments’. This can often result in ‘paper farming’ — another, less obvious type of armchair farming.

I’m thinking of those renting hills and mountains with minimal numbers of sheep; small tillage farmers who don’t even know what crops they are sowing; and the sale of grass by farmers who haven’t even bought the fertiliser.

This weak link in the system must be met head-on by the Department in the new CAP reform.

The land in these farm holdings should be farmed in official partnerships or in share-farming arrangements to draw down payments or else be leased out.

The mentality of holding onto ‘farm payments’ at all costs comes from a fear of losing or of never gaining access to the payments again. This again can be addressed by prioritising such farmers from the National Reserve.

Farm payments, in whatever guise, should be paid to active farmers, not armchair farmers.

I have no issue with retiring farmers leasing out their farm payments in a long-term lease and getting 100pc paid back annually tax-free, but only for as long as those payments last — ie, the length of the CAP reform period.

This allows such farmers to have a clear exit and retire with dignity.

To conclude, farmers have to learn to accept that when they retire they will lose their farm payments at the next reform.

The time has come to tilt the balance in favour of active farmers.

Mike Brady is an agricultural consultant and managing director at Brady Group, Cork