Some 630 farm partnerships are waiting to be paid their 2020 Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP) payment.
Payments to farmers who submitted partnership applications to the scheme are “being processed as a matter of priority”, a spokesperson for the Department of Agriculture told the
Irish Farmers Journal.
Payments under the BDGP began on 14 December last and €38m has been issued to over 21,000 farmers to date.
Further payment runs will issue as applicants continue to satisfy the compliance requirements, the Department spokesperson said.
Rollover of BDGP
Of the 52% of farmers in the BDGP who have responded to the Department about returning to the scheme in 2021, 97% have applied to continue.
SHARING OPTIONS:
The scheme requirements for 2021 BDGP I participants are equivalent to 2020, with breeding female targets remaining unchanges.
The majority of farmers concerned have availed of the option to extend their Green low-Carbon Agri-Environmental Scheme (GLAS) and Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) contracts for 2021.
Figures released on Tuesday by Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue TD, show that 98% of GLAS I and II participants responded by the deadline of 31 December 2020 and within this, some 98% applied to continue in the scheme for an additional year.
There was a similar level of uptake in the Organic Farming Scheme, with 97% of eligible participants responding to the offer and 97% of these opting to avail of the one year contract extension for 2021.
Offaly based super junior Minister reflects on challenging six months in Government
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Minister Pippa Hackett has described her first six months in Government as challenging but very productive.
“The Green Party entered Government at a very difficult time, facing the crises of Covid and Brexit, as well as the climate and biodiversity emergency,” she says. “However, there is an acute awareness that we need to make changes – something the Greens have been saying for years. We want to create an economy that is green, sustainable and circular.”
The Green Party has seven ministers across a number of departments.
Reminder: Deadline tomorrow to opt into GLAS and OFS extensions
Farmer participants in the Green, Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS) and the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) have until tomorrow to opt into the offer of extending their contracts under these schemes.
Taking to social media to remind farmers of the deadline, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said there has been a “very positive response” so far to the offer to extend contracts.
As of the latest figures, 96% of participants in GLAS who were asked (via text) if they wanted to extend their contracts have so far responded, with 98% of that number opting to extend their contracts for another year.