Farmers will be able to check their eligibility for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES), which replaces GLAS and more previously REPS, from Wednesday 22 June.

By logging on to the Department’s online agfood.ie facility, farmers will be able to identify the ACRES approach for which they are eligible.

They can also check this by texting the Department through an SMS facility.

To avail of the ‘ACRES stream checker’ or the text option, farmers must send a text to 50124.

In the text message, they must include “DAFM ACRES” followed by their herd number - for example "DAFM ACRES A1234567”.

The Department will receive the SMS and check the farmers' stream eligibility based on their submitted BPS 2021 application data.

Once a stream has been determined for the supplied herd number, the Department will reply with an SMS including the eligible stream information.

Agreement

An example of the message that will be received would be “A1234567 - stream: co-operation, CP Area: EAST SOUTH EAST. Please contact your adviser to submit an access agreement".

In addition to the above, an access agreement screen will go live on your agfood.ie account on Wednesday, where ACRES advisers acting on behalf of their clients can sign up to facilitate preparation of an application in due course.

This is needed to link potential clients with their selected adviser, so they may work on their behalf on the scheme.

The ACRES access agreement is an agreement between an ACRES applicant and his/her adviser so that BPS/BISS data may be accessed for the purposes for ACRES (including the preparation of the farm sustainability plan and the subsequent application).

Eligible

To be eligible to apply on behalf of his/her clients in due course, an adviser must be recorded on the Department’s corporate customer management (CCM) as an ‘ag agent with ACRES training’, which will also be known as an ACRES adviser, and his/her clients must be associated with him/her on CCM for ACRES.

ACRES adviser training is scheduled for early July 2022.