GLAS will succeed the REPS and AEOS schemes. The name is an acronym for Green Low-carbon Agri-Environment Scheme. A farmer participating in one of the earlier agri-environmental schemes can finish his or her five-year contract. Alternately, it is expected that it will be possible to transfer to GLAS.

The payment

A maximum payment will be €5,000 per annum but the average payment is likely to be lower. Contracts will run for the part-year of application plus the following five full calendar years. The scheme can take in up to 25,000 farmers in its opening year – 2015 – and funding is earmarked for a maximum of 50,000 participants.

An additional GLAS+ payment has been announced for farmers who take on actions which deliver an “exceptional” level of environmental benefit. This payment will be up to €2,000 per annum. The Department of Agriculture has warned that this must operate within available budgets and that the number of farmers receiving the payment will therefore be limited.

In a significant change from the AEOS schemes, an approved agricultural planner must prepare the farmer’s application to GLAS, a Nutrient Management Plan must be prepared for the whole farm in the first year of participation, and the farmer must participate in training courses for specific actions. Courses will be complemented by online demonstrations/advice on good environmental practices.

Participants will be required to keep records of actions taken in the scheme. The requirement to engage a planner and to have a nutrient management plan carried out will result in an up-front cost.

Tier 1

On applying to GLAS a farmer will be ranked as Tier 1, 2 or 3, depending on the nature of farm and farming enterprises. The Tier into which an applicant falls will determine what measures he or she must take up in the scheme. But in addition, if the scheme is oversubscribed by applications in any year Tiers will also determine priority ranking for admission, with Tier 1 getting top priority and Tier 3 lowest.

Tier 1 farms will include those with a Priority Environmental Asset. These are:

  • Farmland habitat (private Natura sites )
  • Farmland birds Twite, breeding waders, chough, geese/swans, corncrake, grey partridge, hen harrier
  • Commonages (once there is 50% minimum participation in GLAS Commonage Plan)
  • High status water area
  • Rare breeds

    If any of these priority assets are present on a farm, the applicant must choose the GLAS actions that relate to them when applying to the scheme.

    In addition, an applicant, whether beef, sheep or dairy, with a whole farm stocking rate exceeding 140kg livestock manure nitrogen per hectare produced on the holding, or with more than 30ha of arable crops, can also be considered for Tier 1 if they adopt one of the following four actions:

  • Low-emission slurry spreading
  • Minimum tillage
  • Green cover establishment from a sown crop
  • Wild bird cover (grassland farms only)
  • Registered organic farmers will qualify for priority access under Tier 1 by selecting actions appropriate to the farm. However, if any of the Priority Environmental Assets listed above apply, they must be chosen first.

    Minister for Agriculture Simon Coveney recently announced that a GLAS+ payment will be targeted at farmers who have to undertake a high number of mandatory actions under the Tier 1 Priority Environmental Assets and Actions.

    Tier 2

    These will be farms with:

  • A key environmental asset, or
  • A whole farm stocking rate less than 140kg Livestock Manure Nitrogen per hectare (produced on holding) or less than 30ha of arable crops undertaking key environmental actions.
  • The only key environmental asset identified so far by the Department of Agriculture is a vulnerable water area. In such cases, the appropriate actions relevant to vulnerable water areas must be selected.

    In the absence of a vulnerable water area, an applicant may still qualify for Tier 2 access, by chosing one of the following actions:

  • Low-emission slurry spreading
  • Minimum tillage
  • Green cover establishment from a sown crop
  • Wild bird cover (grassland farms only)
  • In the event of the scheme being oversubscribed, applications from these farmers will be given secondary access.

    Tier 3

    These are farmers who do not fulfil any of the criteria for Tiers 1 or 2 but who commit to a series of general environmental actions. This Tier is lowest in priority if it is triggered ranking.

    These general actions can be chosen on their own in a Tier 3 application. But they can also be selected as additional actions as part of a Tier 1 or 2 application. The actions are:

  • Low-input permanent pasture
  • Traditional hay meadow
  • Riparian margins
  • Coppicing hedgerows
  • Laying hedgerows
  • Planting new hedgerows
  • Traditional stone wall maintenance
  • Small woodland establishment
  • Environmental management of fallow land
  • Arable margins
  • Bird boxes
  • Bat boxes
  • Conservation of solitary bees
  • Native wild flower margin
  • Wild bird cover
  • Traditional orchards
  • Protection of watercourses (not in high status or vulnerable areas)
  • Protection of archaeological sites
  • Farmers can choose additional actions from the priority list and/or the general list above to bring their annual payment to the maximum of €5,000. Planners will be required to advise farmers to choose actions most suitable for their farms and which deliver the greatest environmental dividend.

    Planners

    All GLAS applications will have to be submitted by a planner. Planners will receive training on the new scheme in advance of its opening for applications. According to the Department, this will ensure greater consistency across applications and reduce errors made. It wants the planner to explain to a farmer applicant what exactly is required under the scheme, to work with the farmer to develop a farm plan that can meet the scheme’s environmental priorities and one which the farmer is comfortable with and capable of delivering.

    A full online application system will be put in place, and will be mandatory for those seeking to join GLAS. This system will give the farmer, through his planner, access to all relevant information relating to his land, including identification of environmental priorities, species under threat and vulnerable or high quality watercourses that require protection.

    The application will be predominantly map-based, with the planner identifying online the areas under an action, or the location and extent of linear actions, and accessing the specific environmental prescriptions applying. This will ensure complete transparency as to what actions are being undertaken under GLAS, and where these actions are planned.

    Tillage farms

    Two weeks ago Minister Coveney announced that tillage farmers could meet their Crop-Diversification requirement, where this arises, by joining GLAS and undertaking to plant winter cover on some of their land. Under EU Regulations they will be deemed to have met their obligation by carrying out an equivalent measure under an agri-environment scheme.

    As we can see above, tillage farmers may qualify as Tier 1 or 2 applicants, depending on the area of arable crops they have, by applying to sow a winter cover crop. However, we do not yet know how great an area of winter cover crop would have to be established. Minister Coveney also noted that a tillage farmer’s GLAS payment would have to be adjusted to avoid double funding of land under both this scheme and the Single Payment Scheme.