Thursday, November 8, 2018

DAERA secures derogation in three-crop rule for Northern Ireland

The severe weather and near constant rainfall in winter and spring this year has left farmers well behind with planting. In many cases they have been unable to plant the range of crops they would normally manage.

This could have meant that they failed to meet the requirements of the Crop Diversification rules, and would have therefore failed to qualify for the Greening payment.

However Phil Hogan, the EU Agriculture Commissioner has just announced his intention to agree a derogation from the requirements for crop diversification for farmers in Northern Ireland in 2018.

If growers are unable to meet all the requirements of Crop Diversification in 2018, because of the severe weather, then they can make decisions as to the best crops to plant to meet their current situation. This will not affect their Greening payment.

An announcement that will take some of the worry away from growers who have been hard hit over the past few months.