€1.7 m for South West Mayo Development for environmental sustainability project
THE Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, has announced funding of €17.8 million for 11 new projects under the European Innovation Partnership (EIP) measure of the CAP Strategic Plan 2023-2027.
The recipients includes South West Mayo Development Company, awarded €1,749,481 for its FARM-Up Farming And Restoration Management for Uplands project.
The project, based in counties Mayo and Donegal, aims to develop, demonstrate and then replicate management and restoration actions in a commonage context, given the importance of blanket bog and associated habitats in national obligations.
Said Minister Heydon: “The 11 new projects receiving funding clearly show the importance of the EIP Programme in driving innovation at farm level, and in trialling and upscaling environmentally sustainable solutions to challenges faced by farmers.
“They include the provision to dairy, beef, sheep and tillage farmers of tailored strategies to facilitate their transition to regenerative agriculture, the promotion of regenerative agriculture practices to restore soil health, enhance biodiversity and improve the resilience of Irish farming systems, and a project dedicated to transforming nutrient management within Ireland’s tillage sector.”
EIPs are locally-led, collaborative projects which involve farmers trialling actions on farms to ensure practical outcomes and learnings that can easily be upscaled and shared.
The projects selected address the theme of environmental sustainability in the farming sector, and will run for periods of between four and five years.
“Covering a broad range of topics and displaying a wide geographical spread, these projects are a clear demonstration of the willingness among farmers and the wider community to co-operate in dealing with environmental challenges on farms at a local level,” said Minister Heydon. “I look forward to engaging on these projects as they proceed over the coming years, and to seeing how they will help to inform future policy development and to address key departmental priorities in the areas of soil health, regenerative and sustainable agriculture, organic farming, and the circular and bioeconomy.”