Agriculture matters

In July, the European part-funded Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme became the first UK rural programme to be approved and is amongst the first ten of hundreds of European regional programmes to get the green light in Brussels. The programme covers the 2007-2013 periods and will be worth over £500million. It focuses on three priority themes:

In the Northern Ireland Programme all of the rural economy and diversification projects will be delivered by local action groups. This early approval means funds will be available more quickly on the ground. More information is available on the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s Rural development webpag .

Agreement was recently reached on Fruit and Vegetable reform. Whilst Northern Ireland does not have a large fruit and vegetable sector it will be affected by changes to horticultural authorisations as land grown for fruit and vegetables will be taken into the single farm payment scheme. Northern Ireland will have full regional flexibility to apply the arrangements which will be detailed in the autumn.  CAP reform continues with the legislative proposals now on the table for the last commodity market to be reformed: wine. The Commission wants to change market support arrangements so that excellent quality European wines can be more competitive. It is hoped that high quality wines will regain lost market share and that less poor quality wine will be produced. For further details please visit the Commission’s fruit and vegetable reform and wine reform pages.

Twenty one different market organisation regimes have now been combined into the one regulation known as the “Single Common Market Organisation” (Single CMO). This does not currently change any of the market arrangements but is a level of simplification that will make future changes to market regimes simpler and more transparent. The full press release is available on the Europa website .

In recent weeks the highly pathogenic (illness producing) type of avian influenza H5N1 has been confirmed in the Czech Republic, Germany and France. In France the disease has been found in three wild swans in Moselle but in Germany more than 200 bird deaths (mostly grebes) have occurred at a dam on one of their regional borders. In the Czech Republic the disease was detected in a wild swan and has now been reported in 4 poultry farms.  Restrictions according to EU law have been set up in all countries. The appearance of the virus is proving unpredictable and all Member States need to be careful in their biosecurity measures and alert to unusual wild bird deaths. Further information is available in the food safety section of the Commission’s website .

Compulsory set-aside was introduced by then EU Agriculture Commissioner Ray MacSharry when reforming the CAP in 1993 and required farmers to limit arable (crop) production. The rate of set-aside is currently 10%. There is a growing world demand for cereals because of poor EU harvests due to wet weather in the north of Europe, droughts in Eastern Europe and increased demand for biofuels, particularly in the US. Commissioner Fischer Boel has indicated that the CAP health check will abolish set-aside but has now said that the Commission will propose a 0% rate for the 2008 harvest. This will help farmers plan for winter planting this year. Voluntary set-aside is still possible with the application of environmental schemes and cross-compliance applies to all arable land. For more information please follow this link to the commission's online press room .

At a hearing in the European Parliament Agriculture Committee, the European Commission have described the recent report produced by the IFA on their visit to Brazilian cattle farms as misleading. Supported by many MEPs, the IFA have called for an immediate ban on the import of Brazilian beef on the basis that:

The Commission added that their own inspectors had recognised some shortcomings in the Brazilian systems similar to those highlighted by the IFA but that these were not enough to justify an urgent change in EU policy. The Commission informed the Parliament Committee that the EU has asked the Brazilian authorities to rectify their deficiencies by the end of the year or the Commission may withdraw authorisation for beef imports to the EU. The Chair of the EP Agriculture Committee Neil Parish has called for a further hearing on this issue in October in the presence of the European Agriculture Commissioner and the Commissioner for Animal Health. For more details please follow this link to the Commission's trade web page .