Up to 20 per cent of Irish farmers own a home computer, it was stated yesterday at an IFA-organised national conference on information technology in Dublin. So great was the demand for places at the event, attended by over 300 farmers, that more than 100 applications were turned down. The conference dealt with all aspects of computerisation and the farm.
The conference heard that the Department of Agriculture and Food will phase in a system of electronic payment of payments to farmers next year. The current level of direct payments stands at over £900 million.
At the opening session the president of the Irish Farmers' Association, Mr Tom Parlon, said information technology will be a key to improved on-farm competitiveness as well as providing the basis for greater consumer confidence in the food we eat.
"Government departments must provide greater flexibility and innovation in the range of services they offer," said Mr Parlon, who added the impact of IT on farming will be dramatic.
"Information technology should have the dual benefits of delivering quicker responses to farmers and reducing the mistakes and errors which continue to dog the paper-based process that farmers currently face in making their applications for the various EU schemes," he said.
"The Department of Agriculture must move quickly to provide practical on-line services to farmers, and away from the system based on slow, manual form filling by farmers," said Mr Parlon.
Mr Tom Arnold, assistant secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Food, said that while the Department had come a long way in IT terms, there was still a long way to go.
There was a strong commitment at ministerial and official level to continue to develop IT in the Department as this was essential to further improve services.
He outlined the systems currently in place at the Department to cope with the additional schemes introduced under the last CAP reform package.
Last year, he said, the systems in place at the Department had to cope with 513,000 applications for headage and premia schemes from 135,000 farmers, leading to the issue of 1.2 million cheques.