Agri-environment schemes were developed in order to encourage
farmers to farm in an environmentally-friendly way in exchange for
financial compensation for environmental practices. The main scheme
in Ireland is known as the Rural Environment Protection Scheme (REPS)
whichwas introduced in response to theMacSharry reform(Regulation
2078/92). The financial support of organic farming is included as a
supplementary measure, which implies that it was compulsory for a
farmer to join REPS in order to receive organic subsidy payments.
The Irish organic sector was very small during the 1980s and early