Publication
CAP Explained
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan will deliver to consumers, our farm families, and rural communities.
It will support the production of world class, safe and sustainable food, and help us achieve our climate and environment ambitions.
The CAP is divided into two pillars. Pillar 1 covers direct support and market supports, and rural development is in Pillar 2.
Ireland as a member state is responsible for the running of our own CAP Strategic Plan, in close co-operation with the European Commission, and the EU Court of Auditors as the guardian of EU finances.
Direct support
Direct support consists of payments granted directly to farmers and provides baseline income support and operates as a safety net in cases of market disturbances.
The CAP guarantees EU citizens a dependable and plentiful supply of high-quality food as well as a healthy environment and preserving the EU landscapes and rural communities.
Direct support ensures that:
• farmers receive income support in return for looking after their farmland and meeting food safety, environmental and animal welfare standards
• EU member states maintain farming activities adapted to their climatic or geographic situation
• producers respond to market signals so that they produce the goods demanded by consumers, allowing them to maximise their profits
Market measures
Many current and future challenges, including global competition, economic and financial crises, climate change and volatile costs of inputs like fuel and fertiliser affect the agri-food sector.
To counter-balance high price volatility in agricultural markets in the EU, a set of rules was established within the CAP.
The common market organisation (CMO) regulation involves:
• building on the rules for the common market in goods and services, creating specific policy tools that help to improve the functioning of agricultural markets
• setting out the parameters for intervening in agricultural markets and providing sector-specific support
• including rules on the marketing of agricultural products and the functioning of producer and interbranch organisations
• issues related to international trade and competition rules
By facilitating the smooth functioning of the single market, the CMO ensures the diversity, availability, affordability, and safety of its agricultural products.
Rural development
Predominantly rural areas make up half of Europe and are inhabited by around 20% of the EU population.
EU rural development measures contribute to:
• modernising farms, promoting the uptake of technology and innovation
• increasing the competitiveness of the agricultural sector
• protecting the environment and mitigating climate change
• improving the vitality of rural communities
• encouraging generational renewal in farming
• boosting rural areas, for instance through investments in connectivity and basic services
Pillar 2 is co-financed by the EU member states.
The rural development policy helps to support the sustainable development of the EU’s rural areas and agriculture, through environmental actions, organic farming and locally-led approaches under the LEADER Programme. EU measures make it easier to modernise farms, adapt to new challenges, while encouraging rural diversification, supporting farms and other rural businesses to modernise and adapt to improve viability and sustainability.
Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan will support the development of Ireland’s agriculture sector and rural areas, and to improve its resilience.
It will do this by helping it to meet the challenges of delivering viable incomes for farmers and producing food in an environmentally sustainable manner and supporting vibrant rural communities.
The Irish CAP Strategic Plan aims to:
1. Protect farm family incomes
2. Recognise the hard work of our farm families as food producers regardless of where they are in the country
3. Play a meaningful role in supporting our climate ambitions.
• See breakdown of all the CAP schemes, and their anticipated opening dates in the summary booklet .
Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan has a strong emphasis on achievement of a higher level of climate and environment ambition that will be achieved through the CAP’s new green architecture.
It contains measures that will help to achieve significant improvements in the areas of biodiversity and water quality, as well as contributing to national and EU climate and environmental targets, including through increased sequestration and carbon removal.
There are three key areas in the new green architecture:
1. Conditionality
2. Pillar 1 Eco-schemes
3. Pillar 2 climate and environment-related interventions
All beneficiaries of the CAP will continue to have their payments linked to a set of mandatory rules known as conditionality.
Consisting of Statutory Management Requirements (SMRs) and standards for the maintenance of land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition (GAECs),
The new rules for conditionality will include a higher level of ambition in several areas.
In the previous CAP, farmers received an additional green direct payment for carrying out three practices: crop diversification, maintaining permanent grassland, and dedicating land to ecological focus areas.
In the new CAP, the most effective aspects of these practices will be incorporated into new conditionality rules. These conclude:
• GAEC on soil protection and quality: crop rotation will be required on all farms of at least 10 hectares. Crop diversification will only be permitted when this practice contributes to the objective of preserving the soil potential. There are exemptions for farms with a lot of grassland, and organic farms are considered as fulfilling the obligation.
• GAEC on biodiversity and landscape: 4% of land will be devoted to non-productive elements and areas, including fallow land, on all farms of at least 10 hectares. This is more than under the current 'greening' system. The obligatory minimum for such non-productive features will be 4% where farmers 'top up' that total to 7% through an Eco-scheme, or where farmers devote significant additional land to catch crops or nitrogen-fixing crops (cultivated without plant protection products in each case).
Certain new GAECs are being introduced, such as GAEC 2, which relates to the protection of peatland and wetland. GAEC 7 now includes rotation as well as diversification requirements. Other GAECs are proposed to be strengthened beyond minimum legislative requirements. For example, the GAEC 8 provision minimum share of land devoted to non-productive areas and features will apply to all agricultural areas, in the main, rather than just arable farms (as set down in the legislation), with certain exceptions for commonage, Natura 2000, forestry, GAEC 2 and GAEC 9 lands. Requirements for those who choose to participate in Eco-schemes and /or Pillar 2 interventions will build on the basic conditionality requirements.
A new voluntary annual agri-environmental scheme, known as the Eco-scheme, will strengthen the environmental and climate outcomes achieved by Pillar 1 payments, by building on baseline improvements achieved through conditionality. Ireland proposes to introduce an Eco-scheme for all farmers, aimed at increasing farmer participation to achieve climate and environmental improvements across all farmed lands.
Ambitious, environmentally focused Pillar 2 interventions will deliver significant long-term environmental improvement through participation by a significant number of farmers, with each making a strong improvement on their farm. This broad range of interventions will build on, and complement, achievements under Conditionality and the Eco-scheme.
These actions will be supported by a CAP Network to communicate best practice and strengthen knowledge and innovation networks.
The CAP Network keeps farmers and rural communities updated and informed of best practices, and supports a range of stakeholders to improve the quality of the implementation and adoption of the interventions outlined in the New CAP Strategic Plan for Ireland .
Once established, Ireland’s National CAP Network will have an increased focus on fostering innovation in agriculture and rural development. It will support the inclusion of, and the interaction between, all stakeholders in the knowledge-exchange and knowledge-building process of initiatives.
The activities of our National CAP Network will be outlined in their Action Plan.
Visit CAP Network Ireland website .
Visit the EU CAP Network page.
The LEADER Programme is a key rural development tool for supporting the economic and social development of rural communities, by providing the resources necessary for communities to support their own development and create capacity at local level. This intervention is administered by the Department of Rural and Community Development.
Full details on the LEADER Programme funding is available on the Department of Community and Rural Development’s website.