Macra na Feirme has said that the current suite of measures under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) Strategic Plan (CSP) “do not actively address the barriers identified by young farmers”.
The young farmer organisation made the statement after submitting its public consultation on the Environmental Assessment of the draft CSP 2023-2027.
Macra said that the barriers for new entrants and young farmers “remain unchanged”, citing access to land; access to credit; start-up support; and a succession scheme that delivers for both younger farmers and older farmers.
“We are entering and last days of formulation of this CSP for the Minister [of Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue] to input interventions that can address these barriers.
“Up to now the proposed suite of interventions do not actively address the barriers identified by young farmers,” Macra president John Keane said.
The organisation is calling on the minister and the department to set a target number of young farmers actively farming by 2027.
“This will be the litmus test of this CAP. We must be aiming to be leaders across the EU for the number of young farmers actively farming. The minister needs to set a target close to 20% that paves the way for policy development to deliver on the target,” Keane said.
Shane Fitzgerald, chair of the Macra Agriculture Affairs Committee, said: “In the context of the CSP, the lack of interventions to address access to credit and start-up support are in complete opposition to the European Commission’s directive on addressing generational renewal.
“Young farmers can no longer be forgotten and their needs not addressed.
“In the late 2000s there was a group of young farmers who had been continuously forgotten by successive governments,” Fitzgerald added.
He continued: “The minister committed to addressing this issue in the context of this CAP but no proposal currently in the public domain delivers on this promise. History cannot be allowed to repeat itself and let young farmers to be forgotten again.”