Farmers count the flood havoc costs
IFA call for direct payments to be fast-tracked in wake of crisis
KNEE-DEEP ISSUES: A local farmer walks through his waterlogged fields at Turloughmore, Co Galway, to inspect the damage done by the recent floods
Tuesday November 24 2009
FARMERS face massive losses and severe fodder shortages as thousands of acres of farmland across the country disappeared under floodwater.
Across the south and west farmers are counting the cost of damage caused by flash floods and high water tables.
Farmers in the west were particularly badly hit, with reports of flooded farmyards and overflowing slurry tanks in some areas.
Some farmers resorted to piling sand bags outside slatted sheds in an effort to keep water out of slurry tanks, while others used diggers to construct temporary drainage ditches outside sheds.
IFA president Padraig Walshe had called for any direct payments due to farmers to be paid out immediately to curb what he termed a "fodder crisis".
"Fodder resources were already scarce because of the poor weather during the summer and the recent flooding has compounded this. Farm incomes will be down by more than 25pc this year and the flooding problems will add to this disastrous income situation," he said.
ICMSA deputy chairman John O'Leary has called on Agriculture Minister Brendan Smith to introduce exceptional measures to allow farmers to implement a clean-up operation on their farms and to ensure that adequate slurry storage will be available for the rest of the year.
Mr O'Leary said many farmers had slurry stores filled with floodwaters, which they are unable, under the current law, to remove from their tanks until January 12 at the earliest and January 30 in the northern half of the country.
He called for an immediate change to the regulations that would allow farmers to remove floodwater from their slurry tanks and to spread it on land when conditions allow.
Some suckler farmers in the west were caught with animals still out grazing when the worst of the flooding occurred. Several farmers had cattle marooned by floodwater for up to four days last week.
In counties Galway and Mayo, floods appeared in areas that have not been flooded for at least 100 years and roads were blocked all over the region.
Grassland farms were flooded by up to three feet of water in some districts.
IFA Connacht vice president Michael Silke said the unprecedented flooding would add further to a severe income and fodder crisis for farm families.
"Farmers have had to move cattle off land that is flooded and use up scarce winter fodder. They will now be forced to buy in extra feed, pushing up their costs and compounding the serious income situation for farm families," he said.
He called on the government to urgently introduce a national flood management plan and commence the River Shannon management programme. In the south, hundreds of acres of land were submerged when rivers burst their banks. Areas such as the Blackwater and Lee valleys, around Clonmel and parts of Co Kerry, were flooded with several feet of water.
- caitriona murphy
Irish Independent
