A Leitrim sheep farmer says he hopes the government will listen to the call for more funding to be allocated to the National Liming Programme.
The programme was introduced by the Department of Agriculture to incentivize the use of Lime a natural soil conditioner, which corrects soil acidity.
Kevin Comiskey who is also the Chairman of the IFA Sheep Committee says it would be a big help to a lot of farming who continue to struggle with hugely inflated input costs.
The Department of Agriculture has confirmed a huge interested among farmers for the programme with over 40,000 applicants so far.
Funding for the programme which closed for applications last month has been set at €8 million euro but it would cost just over €70 million if every farmers who applied was given approval.
The IFA Sheep Chairman says the programme has a double benefit of helping the environment, lowering costs for farmers…
'The high interest in it is an indication and what we always said in IFA in that farmers will do their bit for the climate and for climate action. This is one of the indications of the big uptake on it. The prices in farming are outrageous with inflation prices and input costs. The fertilizer end of it would have an impact on it also but from a nutrients point of view and from a climate point of view it is a no brainer.'
