Commissioner tells Irish farmers new CAP needs to 'fix elements not working'
The EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen, has told Irish farmers that the next Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) needs to "build on what is working well" but also "fix elements not working well".
Speaking during his first official visit to Ireland as EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Food, Christophe Hansen said he believes this approach would give more predictability and will "foster investments" and encourage people to enter farming.
Addressing the Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) 70th AGM in Dublin today (Thursday, January 23), Commissioner Hansen highlighted that he had taken the opportunity to visit a farm in Co. Kildare this morning to see in person the "Irish farming system in real terms".
"I want to be a boots-on-the ground commissioner, it is very important to see farming in real life and not just from a desk somewhere in Brussels.
"I come from a farm myself - we were seven children back home. I was the youngest so it was my oldest brother who took over the farm. But until the age of 20 when I went abroad for studying, every day I was with my brother on the farm and so know a lot about Luxembourgish farming, Belgian farming because we had some land in Belgium as well, but not so much about the Irish.
"That's exactly what I think is very important, to better learn about farming practices around Europe because you cannot compare farming in Ireland to farming maybe in Greece and it is something to take into account," the commissioner said.
Commissioner Hansen told the IFA AGM that while he "will not be able to fix everything" he will "fight for the farming community" in Brussels.
He said during his visit to the farm in Kildare this morning he had discussed a number of issues, from animal welfare to breeding strategy; hygiene; ways to optimise soil fertility; how to best use slurry and soil water; and "all the paperwork they have to fill in".
He acknowledged that farmers do not "chose the job" for the paperwork and that "this is something we really have to work on" .
The commissioner highlighted that there are a lot of "layers" for farmers to deal with, particularly when it comes to the likes of "environmental policies, agricultural policies and health policies".
"It is important that we all pull on the same string to get thing's easier.
"I also want to say that what we have to do is we have to give back the respect to our farming community because sometimes they are blamed for all the bad things that are happening in the world, all the bad things related to nature and to to biodiversity etc.
"But I think the farming community is the first victim of climate change - it is the first victim of biodiversity loss.
"But the farming community is as well, the best ally to protect biodiversity," Commissioner Hansen added.
He used what he described as the example of Ireland and its "huge amount of grassland" to highlight how this works.
"Without cows or sheep how would it look like it?
"It would be something different then, I think even biodiversity would be way less," the commissioner added.
He said that "all the pressure had come down to the sector on the environmental side" but he said that something had been forgotten in relation to the "competitiveness and the productivity of our farmers".
"Our farms are ensuring our food security all over Europe - food security not only in the quantity that we produce but also the quality we produce," Commissioner Hansen added.
During his address at the IFA AGM he also strongly highlighted issues on generational renewal when it comes to farming across Europe and why there must also be a "sustainable" future for farming, not just environmentally but also from an economic perspective.
Commissioner Hansen said it was also important to "do something [so] that young people are once again motivated to come into this job" and one key question around that, he added, is "how will this be financed?".
"We are losing, dramatically, farms all over the continent, we need to do something [so] that farmers stay in production," he added.
The commissioner said one of the key messages coming out from the Strategic Dialogue on the Future of EU Agriculture was that farmers needed more "targeted support".
He said in relation to agricultural policy there needs to be "predictability" for farmers and he also referenced ongoing discussions in relation to "additional financing" for farmers in relation to environmental programmes.
One subject that got a rousing round of applause from farmers at the IFA AGM was in relation to Commissioner Hansen's comments on the restricted use of plant protection products and treated seeds which contain neonicotinoids in the EU.
He highlighted that some products are coming into the EU which are treated with these products, saying "this is something I believe is not fair".
"This is something the farmers do not understand, that is something the consumers do not understand either and we have to be bolder on that," the commissioner added.
