Farmers for Action (FFA) is calling for the removal of the four farm residency criterion within the Farm Quality Assurance Scheme (FQAS) that operates within Northern Ireland’s cattle and sheep sectors.
“It serves no purpose at all”, said FFA spokesman, William Taylor.
“All it does is restrict opportunities for livestock farmers wishing to sell stock in the marts.
“FFA objected strongly to the proposal of introducing a residency limitation within FQAS when it was first mooted.
“Livestock farmers got on very well prior to its introduction. And the same principle holds today,” he added.
FFA fundamentally objects to the impact of FQAS on livestock prices, across the board, in Northern Ireland.
“When the scheme was first introduced, it genuinely delivered an additional return to farmers: now it is operating as a form of penalty,” Taylor said.
FFA has also confirmed the issues that will be discussed at the organisation’s meeting with Stormont agriculture minister, Andrew Muir, in early September.
They are: the proposed farm Welfare Bill for Northern Ireland; future farm support budgets; climate change; the eradication of bovine tuberculosis and the environmental challenges created by Lough Neagh’s algal blooms.
FFA
FFA is directly linking the issues of future farm support budgets and the introduction of its farm welfare bill.
The proposed measure would act to deliver farm gate prices that fully recognise all costs of production, while also delivering a margin, which would allow farmers to invest in the future of their businesses.
Taylor further explained:
“The farm welfare measure will act to deliver sustainable prices across agriculture as a whole. As this is achieved, the need for direct support measures recedes proportionately.
“The proposed farm welfare scheme is a form of self adjusting measure.”
Without the availability of a price support mechanism, FFA estimates that an annual farm support budget of £600 million will be required to maintain a sustainable farming sector in Northern Ireland.
However, if the proposed farm welfare scheme was introduced, the actual cost to the taxpayer in supporting production agriculture could come down to almost zero, according to FFA.
Taylor believes that political support for the proposed measure is growing.
“But this is not the case where the top civil servants within the Department of Agricullture, Environment and Rural Affairs are concerned.
“This is why it is so important for FFA representatives to have a face-to-face meeting the farm minister,” he added.
