Farmers have been urged to get their Single Application Form (SAF) submitted as soon as possible after it emerged at the start of this week that only 8,460 have been received by DARD.

That is from a total of 29,500 expected to be submitted to the Department by the deadline of 15 May.

In a statement this week, Agriculture Minister Michelle O’Neill again appealed to farmers to use DARD’s online service rather than the paper application.

To date, 5,648 forms have been submitted online, although the majority of these are thought to have been submitted by agents working on behalf of farmers.

The new rules this year have increased the time required by agents to get individual forms complete. With new entitlements based on the area submitted in 2015, there is little room for error.

However, it is the rules around greening that are causing most frustration, particularly the outline map required to identify ecological focus areas.