Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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797. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the current number of hectares and percentage of utilisable agricultural area under use for or in conversion to organic production; the targets for 2025, 2027 and 2030; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4703/23]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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There are approximately 200,000 hectares under organic production, which represents 4% of the utilisable agricultural area.  This includes farmers who commenced farming organically this year and whose applications are still being processed under the most recent intake to the scheme. 

The target set out in the Programme for Government is to achieve a target of 7.5% of the total land area farmed organically by 2027 while the revised target set in the Climate Action plan is to achieve 10% organic land area by 2030.

I am very encouraged by the strong uptake in the Organic Farming Scheme over the last two years especially in the most recent tranche which saw 3,423 eligible applications received. Of these, 2,131 are new to the Organic Farming Scheme and the remaining 1,292 applications representing those whose contracts finished on 31st December 2022.

Under the new CSP, for the years 2023-2027, I have secured a budget of €256m for the organic sector with the aim of building upon this growth and developing the sector further. This allocation has facilitated enhanced payment rates, including the introduction of a participation payment for farmers, to support the maintenance and conversion to Organic Farming. 

I am confident the support measures we have put in place will assist in achieving our targets and encourage many more farmers to make the transition to organic farming.