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Sofa farmers are often called people who do not produce any production, they simply mow the lawn, declare areas and receive payments. As ranchers on infertile land say, this distorts the market by not leaving land to rent and competing on price with people who simply collect direct payments free of taxes and other aid.
“We are pleased with such decisions by the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA),” said the farmer who managed the cattle farm, who did not want to give his name.
How Delphi In a comment sent by the ministry, the National Payments Agency (NMA) proposed to leave the possibility of allowing the grass to be crushed and spread in the field during harmonization, but this proposal was not taken into account. The ministry did not change its decision: not to allow the grass to be crushed and simply spread outside. This was decided after evaluating the position of scientists and environmental and agricultural experts on the impact of abandoning biomass cut in the fields (mulching) on environmental agricultural processes. Since this method of grassland care is not only environmentally unsustainable, but also creates preconditions for receiving financial support for those who do not contribute to the added value created in the agricultural sector, the Ministry decided to clarify the grassland care procedure for cutting direct payments. the grass and spread evenly on the field. The cut grass (hay, green mass, etc.) in the meadows will have to be neat (taken from the field or compressed, or the hay put into cones).
This means that mowing alone is not enough. As the farmer himself calculated, until now, it was not a lucrative business until the lawn had to be cleaned.
Cut grass (hay, green mass, etc.) in meadows will have to be neat (taken from the field or compressed, or hay put into cones).
Handling will be costly multiple times.
“This proposed amendment has been well received by livestock farms as it would reduce the number of so-called sofa farmers declaring pasture land and receiving € 185 per hectare.” Delphi He said the last name that the farmer did not want to say and provided his calculations on how much money can be made from such activities.
“When you are a farmer who raises animals and declares the land, you get around 180 euros per hectare. If you are a young farmer, declare a small area or work on unproductive land, you can receive an additional 100 euros. If you do not raise animals, but only small meadows, you are claiming that total payment of about 180 euros. This profit should reach about 200 euros in a few years ”, explains the person, giving figures on how much money can be earned with a business of this type.
If you have the equipment, the crop costs a few euros per hectare, although there is no added value, only the tractor pollutes the environment (which is not in line with the idea of the Green Field). Eventually the bushes start to turn yellow in such fields when they are cut down in early summer, cut down in height, often the young trees just snap and then recover and begin to wilt.
“At that time, if you are a normal farmer, you cut that field, you collect the cut grass and the field is clean and the hay is fed to the animals. Managing a hectare in this way costs around 100 euros ”, explains the farmer.
Complex controls
The NMA itself explained this situation and outlined the reasons why the amendments were opposed.
“The NPA does not formulate agricultural policy, but implements it, for which reason it submitted comments on the bill in strict accordance with its competence, as the institution responsible for the supervision and control of the requirements established in the legislation,” the statement read in the report.
After reviewing the legislation, the NMA identified difficulties that would be encountered when conducting inspections:
-It would not be possible to reduce the number of on-the-spot checks by replacing them with continuous remote monitoring of the fields;
-Increase the cost of inspections, extend the time for carrying out inspections and therefore the payment of payments by area;
-Increase in cases of complaints and litigation by applicants, since the grass rots quite quickly after the mulch has been done, so going to the site to check the mulch can be ineffective.
It should be noted that applicants are paid in all cases the basic payment and the greening payment and the first 30 hectares for the first hectares. Other payments (payments for young farmers and Natura 2000 payments in the table) are subject to the fulfillment of additional requirements. That is, the payment is paid to the young farmer if the applicant so wishes and meets the requirements for the young farmer, Natura 2000 payments, if the declared areas belong to the Natura 2000 area.
Benefits table
© Photo of the organization
Palies 70 thousand. say ah
According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture from the previous year, more than 800 thousand. It has meadows and pastures, of which the cattle are not kept in a relatively small part: about 70 thousand. say ah.
According to this year’s NMA data, in Lithuania in 2020, the meadows amounted to about 834,012 ha with a total declared area of 2,903,120 ha. According to the applicants, they were distributed as follows:
-about 459,400 ha of applicants who maintain at least 0.3 Sg / ha (Sg – conditional cattle)
-approximately 100495 ha – applicants maintaining between 0.1 and 0.3 Sg / ha
-approximately 274,117 ha – applicants who do not have animals or have less than 0.1 Sg / ha.
No separate study has been done, so those who only crushed and spread the grass (with mulch) cannot be excluded from the available numbers. It is likely that the vast majority of applicants produced animal feed and used grasslands for grazing and changes in the care arrangements of those applicants would not be affected.
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