HUNDREDS of Galway farmers will this week be receiving approval letters for Tranche 2 of the ACRES environmental scheme, the Dept. of Agriculture has confirmed.

Tranche 1 of the scheme saw a huge uptake in both the general and co-operative sections across the West of Ireland with over 11,300 farmers in Galway and Mayo included. An estimated 1,000 Galway farmers will now be getting into ACRES Tranche 2.

Last Friday, Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue, confirmed the issuing of approval letters for Tranche 2 ACRES general applicants, starting from this week.

A total of 9,000 farmers had applied for inclusion in Tranche 2 of ACRES (Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme) in both the general and co-operative sections.

ACRES Co-operation applicants in Tranche 2 started to receive their approval letters last week – in total across the country there will now be 55,000 farmers in the scheme.

Initially, the Dept. of Agriculture said that Tranche 2 would be confined to 4,000 applications, but in the end, all of the valid 9,000 applicants were accepted into the scheme which is co-funded by the EU and the National Exchequer.

Of the 5,554 Galway farmers accepted into Tranche 1 of ACRES, 3,031 are in the General scheme with a further 2,523 in ACRES Co-operation.

Pictured: Minister for Agriculture, Charlie McConalogue