ICSA made a submission in February to the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food in response to the 2014 – 2020 Rural Development Programme 2014 – 2020 consultation paper.
The ICSA document sets out the association’s policy positions on a range of Rural Development issues across the 7 main aspects namely:
- Agri-Environment Climate Measures
- Areas of Natural Constraint
- On Farm Capital Investments
- Knowledge Transfer Measures
- Support for Collaborative and Quality Focused Measures
- Targeted Support
- LEADER
Key overarching themes of ICSA’s submission relation to appropriate targeting of RD funds, simplification of application and record keeping, cost implication of capital measures, equitable division of sectoral budgets and focused measures for suckler and sheep farmers.
ICSA expects to continue to lobby strongly in support of the drystock sector as part of RD negotiations through the course of 2014.
