INHFA to protest over mineral soil inclusion under GAEC 2
The Irish Natura and Hill Farmers' Association (INHFA) is to hold a protest over the inclusion of mineral soils under the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions (GAEC 2).
The farm organisation will gather at 11:30a.m tomorrow (Tuesday, March 4) outside the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) offices on Kildare Street in Dublin.
GAEC 2 (protecting peatlands and wetlands) is one of two new conditionality standards for the 2025 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS).
GAEC 2 is a baseline minimum requirement to protect carbon rich soils. In Ireland, the grass-based system already provides considerable protection for such soils and they are also protected by existing national planning provisions, for example on drainage.
The department has said that farmers impacted by this GAEC will be notified in due course of the land parcels affected and the obligations applying to those land parcels.
DAFM maintains that the introduction of this standard is expected to have minimal impact on farmer’s day-to-day operations.
The department said that, in practice, it is only at the point that a farmer wishes to carry out drainage, reseeding of grassland, or deep ploughing that the farmer needs to check if the land parcel in question is a GAEC 2 parcel.
The INHFA believes that "the government’s unjust proposed definition for the standard for GAEC 2 in Ireland’s context is sacrificing farmers along the western seaboard".
INHFA president Vincent Roddy said that the organisation is "taking to the streets to raise awareness amongst farmers around the government's proposed definition for the GAEC 2 standard".
"If applied as currently proposed the standard for GAEC 2 will see over 100,000ha of mineral soils being wrongly classified in an EU standard that should only be for peatlands and wetlands.
"This will have a massive impact for up to 35,000 farmers who will see additional restrictions that will undermine farming output and increase planning difficulties and all of this on lands that should not have been included," he said.
The INHFA president said that "the protest on Tuesday is the first action in a campaign aimed at delivering significant changes to the current GAEC 2 proposals".
INHFA vice president John Joe Fitzgerald believes that GAEC 2 will place another designation on lands mainly located along the west coast.
He told Agriland that the standard, in its current form, will restrict farming practices on impacted land and create significant additional difficulties for securing planning permission.
Fitzgerald said that clarity is also needed from DAFM about an appeals mechanism for farmers who believe their land should not be included under GAEC 2.
He noted that farm advisors are already under pressure to submit BISS and other area based scheme applications before the May 15 deadline.
The INHFA vice president also said that farmers would need to know if any appeal process could result in a delay to their farm payments.
The farm organisation is demanding no mineral soils be included in this proposed standard.
The INHFA has written to Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon to outline its "extreme dissatisfaction" with the minister's position on the proposed definition of a standard for GAEC 2 in Ireland.
In the letter, the INHFA stated that the EU Commission provided Ireland with a two-year period to identify peat land and wetland areas, allowing for comprehensive mapping to be undertaken.
"After investing significant time and resources into this process, your department, with your full support, chose to disregard the outcome in order to protect the interests of intensive agriculture and forestry at the expense of farmers along the western seaboard," the letter claimed.
The INHFA added "this is a rank injustice to those who depend on fair agricultural policies for their livelihoods".
The organisation also took issue with the policy that GAEC 2 parcels have to encompass entire Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) parcels.
"As Ireland defines its approach to the Nature Restoration Law, having mineral soils now being mapped as part of GAEC 2 sets a dangerous precedent that encourages overreach in delivering on EU regulation in Irelands context," the letter stated.
"The farming communities of the western seaboard will not stand idly by as their livelihoods are sacrificed to protect vested interests.
"We urge you to reconsider your stance and act in the best interest of all farmers, not just those who wield the greatest economic influence," the INHFA said.
The farm organisation has demanded that Minister Heydon "immediately halt the current proposal and negotiate a fair and just position for Ireland in relation to GAEC 2".
The INHFA is also planning to write to EU Commission for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen to highlight their concerns.
