Forestry
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon recently made clarifications on payment schemes for broadleaf plantations.
Agri Politics
The Oireachtas Joint Committee on Agriculture and Food meets on Wednesday (April 22).
Latest figures show 9,120 forest owners received an "annual income tax-free premium payment" under the Afforestation Scheme last year.
Forestry premiums worth €24.2 million have been issued to over 7,000 forest owners, the Department of Agriculture has said.
The Cabinet has approved the final version of the new Forestry Programme 2023-2027 during a special meeting in Co. Wicklow today.
DAFM has issued an average of 60 forestry licences per week for all of July and for the first three weeks in August
The department has been in touch with a farmer regarding "failed forestry" claims, stating that it is "satisfied" with the plantation.
A farmer "between a rock and a hard place" over a forestry plot which failed to establish has warned of a "ticking time-bomb for farmers".
Agri-Business
Planting "suboptimal" parts of farmland for forestry could fit in for dairy farmers going forward, with emissions increasingly to the fore.
Minister Andrew Doyle yesterday launched the start of the 2017-18 forestry planting season and afforestation programme in Co. Wicklow.
The rate of forestry planting will continue to fall if farmers are not paid on all land they are obliged to set aside, according to the IFA.
