UFU Hill Farming Chairman Seamus Maginn believes that the Agriculture Minister's announcement this week to allocate an additional £4.2 million into the 2010 LFACA scheme will be a huge boost to both LFA farms and the wider rural economy.
The increase is a result of a favourable exchange rate first brought to DARD's attention by the UFU in January 2009. At that time the UFU highlighted that LFA payments were established in Euro in the NI Rural Development Programme and therefore tran
slation into sterling should have resulted in higher scheme payments to local farmers. As a result of that the Minister made an announcement in March that £3.3 million in back payments for the 2007, 2008 and 2009 scheme years would be paid to farmers later in the year.
This latest announcement to pay an additional £4.2 million for the 2010 scheme year comes on the back of proposals to increase the rate of LFA payments from 2010 onwards to £22 or €25 for Disadvantaged Areas (DA) whichever is greater of the sterling equivalent and maintaining the double DA rate for SDA. Whilst these rates are subject to affordability review, the proposals will mean that the rates used for the 2010 scheme year will be £23.81/ha for DA and 47.62/ha for SDA.
Seamus Maginn said: "The increase in 2010 payments coupled with the additional back payments which totals £7.5 million in additional funding, will mean an overall payout of around £29.5 million whenever the existing 2010 LFACA budget is included, will be made to LFACA applicants inside the next six months. This will be a major boost to farmers in these areas.
"Farmers in LFA's are faced with rising costs and lower returns and this additional funding will be a major relief to many of the beef and sheep producers in these areas. Furthermore rural business and the wider rural economy will also benefit significantly."
