From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
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Making the announcement today, Minister McConalogue said:
“2023 was a very challenging year for tillage farmers. High input prices, coupled with reduced output prices, reduced yields and very difficult weather caused severe disruption, both at harvest and during the autumn sowing period, which has carried over into early 2024.“
The Minister continued:
“The tillage sector is an important and integral component of the Agri-food industry making a significant contribution to overall agricultural output. Direct output from tillage over the period 2014-2018 averaged €640 million per annum. The adverse weather and seed shortage has restricted the crop options for tillage farmers this Spring. Met Eireann data shows that most rainfall stations experienced more than 150% of the average rainfall in the July to December 2023 period. I’m satisfied that these weather events allow for the use of the force majeure option within the Regulations and consequently farmers will be exempted for 2024 from the Crop Diversification obligations under GAEC 7, commonly known as the two/three crop rule."
The Minister added:
“Tillage farmers will still be required to meet the obligations in relation to Crop Rotation by 2026 but this derogation will give farmers the flexibility to grow one, two or multiple crops to suit their individual circumstances.”
Concluding, the Minister McConalogue said:
“This exemption will allow farmers pick the crops that best suit their circumstances, taking account of the time of sowing, market returns and seed availability. It is critical that we provide the maximum support to tillage farmers and this derogation is in addition to the significant financial supports provided in 2023. The Minister added that we must take account of the practical realities of farming to ensure that tillage farmers can continue to grow crops and contribute to the agricultural and local economy.”
The main objective of GAEC 7 is preserving soil potential and it is applicable to arable land only. This standard has two implementing aspects, crop rotation and crop diversification. Planned crop rotations improves soil quality and health where for example the rotation includes deep rooting crops such as brassicas (for example, oil seed rape) and legumes (for example, beans). Crop rotation also has advantages in terms of weed, pest and disease control and as a result can help in achieving a reduction in the use of chemical pesticides as set out in the Farm to Fork Strategy. The crop rotation element of this standard requires a change of arable crop once in a four-year cycle.
The crop rotation element of this standard also incentivises rotation with cover crops which may be more suitable to holdings specialising in the production of barley for the malting and distilling industry, and on smaller, arable holdings where compliance with the GAEC 7 crop rotation requirements presents various agronomic challenges.
Crop diversification, which forms the second element of this GAEC standard also has environmental benefits and as a practice, it can support a system of crop rotation.
The Crop Diversification exemption will operate for all farmers that have an obligation in 2024, but Crop Rotation continues to apply. Holdings with an arable area equal to or greater than 10ha must implement a crop rotation which requires at least two different crops to be sown at parcel level over a four-year cycle (2023-2026).