NEWS

DARD discriminating against smaller farmers
By Staff Reporter

THE National Beef Association claims thousands of smaller farmers in NI are being discriminated against by DARD at a cost of many tens of thousands of pounds to the rural economy.
Oisin Murnion, NI chairman NBA, hit out at DARD for not paying interest owed to farmers on late Less Favoured Areas payments if less than £50.
“The money kept from an individual farmer may hardly amount to a day’s pay, but given the large number of LFA small holdings in total a huge sum is being held back from our least well off townlands,” Oisin added.
“The NBA fully supports Fermanagh farmer and MLA Tom Elliott’s call for all interest to be paid now. Let us have equal treatment for all as DARD collect interest owed to them by farmers down to the very last penny in cases where an over payment has been made.
“The NBA would remind the regional minister and her senior civil servants that rural poverty is an issue, not least inside the LFAs.
“According to DARD’s own figures 70 per cent of the 26,146 active farm businesses in NI are in Less Favoured Areas. Indeed of those farms designated as inside a LFA over half, 56 per cent, are in a SDA, Severely Disadvantaged Area.
“Looking further at government statistics one finds that only a quarter of farms in the LFAs are classified as medium or large, compared to 39 per cent in non LFA districts!
“Thus farms in LFA areas, and especially SDAs, tend to be smaller so these farmers need every pound that’s owned to them as guardians of the uplands and food producers. It is a total disgrace that these are the very people DARD has rebutted and refused to pay. DARD being the very government department who state that the SDA is characterised by the prevalence of small holdings."


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