UFU to get farmers' views on CAP reform at area meeting
Editorial Department • Published 19 Jan 2012 13:00
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Farmers looking for clarification on the EU's CAP reform proposals will be seeking answers at next week's UFU President's Area Meeting in Enniskillen.
The dominant issues will be the definition of an active farmers and how farmers can respond to greening.
The Enniskillen meeting on Thursday evening next, January 26 will be the final one in a series of meetings across Northern Ireland dominated by the CAP reform proposals.
The UFU are using the meetings to gauge opinions of farmers before making a detailed submission to the proposals.
However this week, the UFU Presidential team, meeting the agricultural press, said that the proposals could not be supported as they stood. And in fact that is the view of most farm organisations across the 27 Member States.
Asked what their main concerns are, the President, John Thompson said it was undoubtedly over the greening proposals and the definition of what makes an active farmer.
The President and Clarke Black, the UFU's chief executive, say however, that despite their opposition to the proposals, they had to work with what was published and look for a way forward which would be acceptable to Northern Ireland farmers.
"There is a fair degree of support within Europe for agriculture and consumers are paying the money and while the budget should be retained, we are in unknown territory now," said Clarke.
On the Single Farm Payment allocation for Northern Ireland the UFU President said he was hopeful that the Province could retain that level of support, despite calls from other regions for what they say should be a more "equitable" spread of the money.
While the greening proposals are at face value alarming for farmers, Clarke Blacke maintains that Northern Ireland has nine times as many environmental features to satisfy in the requirements but it is how it is interpreted on a farm by farm level that would be the crunch issue.
The President's Area Meetings across the Province have been well attended by farmers and the Fermanagh meeting is expected to see many more looking for clarification. Much of the agenda on the night will be focused on the CAP reform proposals with other farming issues also debated.
The Union is buoyed this year after reporting a huge increase in membership last year. Around 800 new members joined bringing the organisation's membership to around 11,500. But they say they would like to see more joining since there are 25,000 farm businesses in Northern Ireland.
Joe McDonald, Director of Communications and Membership, said they were extremely pleased with the response from farmers and they would continue to be the main lobbying organisation for the agricultural industry to achieve success for members.
President, John Thompson said it was clear that the staff within the organisation had a passion for the work they did.
Discussing other topics, the UFU expect the opening of Tranche 3 of the Farm Modernisation Grant Scheme to possibly happen in late Spring.
On the EU ban on eggs from caged hens, John Thompson said Northern Ireland was more or less fully compliant with the new regulations this month after a huge investment by producers. But they had concerns over the fact that around 14 Member States of Europe were not compliant and that those illegal eggs would find their way to the UK marketplace. While they still had concerns over these illegal shelled eggs, their main concern was the liquid egg market which could be disguised easier.
This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 19 Jan 12
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