With the future of agriculture high on the agenda, Irish MEP Maria Walsh this week addressed one of the biggest challenges the sector faces – generational renewal.
Maria Walsh, the European Parliament’s chief negotiator on generational renewal in the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), spoke to Agriland Editor Stella Meehan in Strasbourg.
Walsh Recently published Draft report of the European Parliament on Renewing generations in agricultureWith the aim of providing a ‘blueprint’ for the way forward when it comes to the next generation of farmers.
The report notes that young farmers need easier access to land and expanded land transfer schemes, and that there should be better access to finance and banking support with more ambitious support for women farmers.
Its main ambition is to allocate 10% of the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy budget to benefit young farmers and generation renewal.
As work continues, the MEP for the Midlands-North West said it was a “very clear cut” the need for this 10% fence.
Additional amounts such as the €300,000 “starter package” proposed by the Common Agricultural Policy Program are also important for young farmers, “to relieve a lot of the pressures that farmers and farm owners face” in terms of investment, she said.
She said discussions on generational renewal were also taking place “in tandem” with work on other issues including the need to support market diversification for farmers, such as wool for sheep farms.
Walsh also said there was a need to support older farmers as part of generational renewal, “to ensure farmers of any age retire in a dignified and financially secure way”.
This is done while “ensuring that the inheritance, whether land or assets, goes to the young farmer for expansion and growth.”
This week, the European Commission revealed its first-ever report Livestock strategy.
The strategy aims to establish a roadmap to help the livestock sector thrive across Europe.
MEP Walsh said she was “a bit disappointed” in the strategy.
“I could also talk at length about the fertilizer strategy that the committee released just a few weeks ago, because it seems like we’re just looking at the short-term problem versus the long-term problem,” she said.
“When we use existing money or old money and we don’t invest new money, it also frustrates me because we need to make sure that food security is also our number one priority in security and defence.”
Profitability
Walsh highlighted the decline in sheep and cattle numbers not only in Ireland but also across Europe.
She said change could happen if there was “better balance in our supply chain, and our retail markets need to wake up and say that a farmer who produces good quality food needs to be paid a living wage.”
“We need to be really serious about any of these strategies that are released, or the next Common Agricultural Policy, and we have to look at inflation rates because that reduces profitability,” she added.
For marginal areas, Walsh said new offers for diversification should be explored through LEADER for example, such as wool or agritourism, to ensure farmers can generate a “more sustainable and diversified” income.
“For me, the clarity in these last few strategies from the Commission does not provide that for me, but we continue to work on it and that is why we are here,” the MEP said.
“In the coming months, we need to be really clear in the black and white text about what goes into the farmer’s pocket, what can be taken out of the farmer, and then what other markets are around them.
“The livestock strategy has to feed into not just two-, three- or five-year increments, it has to be 20 or 30 years for us to be competitive.
“If we want to be competitive as a European bloc in agriculture, then what will we do to achieve this?”
cap
Walsh stressed the need to increase the post-2027 Common Agricultural Policy budget from the current proposed amount.
Walsh said she was “really clear” that when it comes to “the agriculture, competitiveness and food security piece, this is not the time to be smart about taking risks.”
“We need to invest more. We need to invest in our technology, and we need to make sure we have those different markets.
“We need to lift the administrative burden as well.”
She said that during Ireland’s EU presidency, “honest brokers are what the government will need – but that doesn’t mean using 14 MEPs isn’t a possibility too.”
“We have very good relationships with many of the large member states, but we have to be practical as well,” Walsh said.
“The reduction in the upcoming Common Agricultural Policy means there is a reduction in our country.”
“We have to be really clear to those on the ground who are putting food on our table multiple times a day what that is going to look like,” she said.
From the point of view of the EU presidency, she said: “We have a real opportunity and a lot of pressure over the next six months because we have colleagues here who expect Ireland to close the Common Agricultural Policy Fund for the next period.”
“Low-hanging fruit”
Walsh identified “a number of low-hanging fruit” that the government must also address.
“There needs to be clarity about nitrate derogation,” she said. “I know we were given a reprieve, but this will be looked at again.”
“We need to make sure that our young farmers get support immediately.
“Reclassifying wool as a by-product is very important.
“All of these things, what I would call the low-hanging fruit, have to happen.
“If we are seeing a reduction in the Common Agricultural Policy led by our presidency, we have to make sure that a lot of other things are relaxed so that farmers can get on with what they need to do.”
She added, “Basically, if member states at the Council level do not inject new funds, we have to be prepared for what is coming.”
