CARA Wales

Elin Jones has announced that there will be a further £6.8m of support given to the organic sector in Wales. The result of this is that all the applications made this year to enter the scheme will be accepted. It will also allow for more applications to be accepted to the 2009 scheme.

 There will be a total of £7.5m available in 2009-2010 and £5.5m in 2010-11. This means that payments have started with most farms receiving 70% of their total now.

If you are considering converting to organic farming then the advice would be to think about it as soon as possible to make sure you are in the first come first served bracket for the forthcoming year.

However in the same breath it’s advised that all farmers wishing to convert should apply for Assembly Government support before starting the conversion process.  This will enable farmers thinking about converting to be given a commitment of support or clear advice that they will not be supported and thus allow them to make informed business decisions. 

This good news won’t be such good news for others as the money has been taken away from other schemes to fund the organic applications. The result of this is that there will be a change in three other areas, these being

1)      All applications made for the Tir Cynnal Scheme on the SAF in 2008 will be put on hold for now until an Axis 2 review has been made.

2)      Tir Gofal applications that don’t reach the 100 points required for the scheme will be discarded without a visit and only those farms offering the best environmental result will be further pursued

3)      The Catchment Sensitive Farming Scheme will be delayed until April 2010 instead of late 2009. The number of catchment areas will however remain the same.

The time of year has come around again to complete the SAF. There are a few changes to note to the forms, the largest being the move towards “one form for all schemes”. Basically, all payments for Tir Cynnal, Tir Gofal and the Organic Farming Scheme will be applied for on the SAF form. This will mean that a greater deal of cross checking is required by applicants to ensure all records cross match and correspond.

If you require assistance in completing your form please contact the office.