From 1 March 2018, farmers have been able to access and complete their 2018 Single Application for area-based schemes. The deadline for submitting the information to DAERA is midnight on Tuesday 15 May.

Amendments can be made to increase the area on the claim up to the end of May. After that, penalties apply, and no changes can be made after 11 June 2018.

The information must be completed online by accessing DAERA online services. The schemes covered include the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and Greening, the Young Farmers’ Payment, the Regional Reserve, the NI Countryside Management Scheme, the Environmental Farming Scheme, and various woodland schemes. However, with no funding available for an Area of Natural Constraint (ANC) scheme, it has been removed from the application process this year.

For most farmers, the main objective will be to make a BPS claim using entitlements established by the business in 2015. The value of those entitlements in 2018 can be viewed online. It shows what they are worth minus the greening payment – to establish the greening element multiply by 44.117647%.

When entitlements were first established in 2015, it was the first year of a seven-year transition to a flat rate payment of €330/ha in 2021. In 2018, we are now in the fourth year of this process. It is set to continue in 2019, but with Brexit, what happens in 2020 and 2021 is not clear at this stage.

Also available online is the entitlements transfer process for anyone buying/selling or leasing entitlements this year. For a transfer to take effect in 2018, it must be received by 2 May.

Active

When the new CAP reforms came into force in 2015, DAERA brought in various controls aimed at ensuring that BPS money only goes to active farmers. These rules still apply, and a farmer in 2018 that claims entitlements on a parcel of land, must have that land at their disposal on 15 May, and be undertaking the predominant farming activity on that land over the course of the year.

So, a farmer or landowner who is leasing out land this year should not include the relevant fields on their Single Application.

They could lease their entitlement to the person who is farming the land.

The rules also require that a claimant should declare all the land they are actively farming.

Map

The Department no longer routinely send out a paper copy of the farm map. The most up-to-date map is available to view online, but could still be a couple of years out of date, so it should be carefully checked. Any changes to the maximum eligible area (MEA) in each field should be made as soon as possible to ensure the information is updated ahead of the Single Application closing date.

At inspection, if a farmer has been found to have claimed on ineligible land, penalties can apply. If the area in question is less than 3% of the total area claimed, and under 2ha, the payment is reduced to the new area determined by DAERA, but there is no penalty.

If the over-declaration is more than 3% of the area determined, and over 2ha, payments are calculated based on the area determined as eligible by DAERA.

This total is then reduced by 1.5 times the area of the land that has been over-declared.

For relatively minor, first offences, a ‘yellow card’ is applied, where the administrative penalty is reduced by 50%.

Greening

The vast majority of farmers in NI are exempt from the rules around crop diversification and ecological focus area, and therefore automatically receive the greening payment.

For those arable farmers caught by the rules, there is a slight change this year. Up to 2017, a farm was exempt if more than 75% of land was in grass, and the arable area did not exceed 30 ha. The 30ha requirement has been dropped for 2018.

Young farmers

The young farmers’ payment and the regional reserve for either young farmers or new entrants are both open to applications in 2018.

In 2017 the young farmers’ payment was worth £49.90/ha on up to 90ha, while a successful applicant to the regional reserve can go straight to the regional average of €330/ha in the first year.

In theory, successful applicants to the young farmers’ scheme should receive the top-up for five years, although what happens when Brexit kicks in is unknown.

However, it is the regional reserve that has proved much more lucrative in a number of cases, especially where large tracks of marginal land are available to claim. Anyone looking to establish a new business ahead of a claim to the regional reserve this year should contact their local DAERA office as soon as possible.

Applicants to either the young farmers scheme or regional reserve must submit their Single Application online by the 15 May deadline. But they are also required to bring supporting evidence, in person, to their local DAERA Direct office by the same date.

Farmers responsible for ineligible land

DAERA guidance for the 2018 scheme year reminds farmers that it is the claimant’s responsibility to declare ineligible land in their Single Application to avoid penalties.

Inspections for land eligibility are undertaken by DAERA on 5% of claims, which equates to around 1,200 inspections this year.

Figures for 2016 indicate that 1,212 land eligibility inspections were carried out, with 10.5% of these checks leading to penalties. The vast majority of inspections are undertaken using satellite and aerial imagery, with only a small proportion involving an inspector walking the land.

Land eligibility inspectors will look for evidence of one of three activities on land; grazing, growing/harvesting of a crop, or management of vegetation, such as flailing or burning heather.

Land and features on farms that have been declared ineligible in the past, or identified as ineligible by the department, will have purple shading on the farm map. However, further deductions may need to be made by the claimant.

Heather

One of the most common land eligibility issues is with areas of heather and bogland. Heather is classified as eligible if it is accessible to grazing livestock, less than 50cm tall and used for agricultural purposes (either grazing, burning or flailing).

In areas where there is a mosaic of both ineligible and eligible heather, up to 20% of a field can have mature heather (over 50cm tall). If mature heather exceeds 20% of a field, then the total area of mature heather is ineligible.

DAERA allows up to 20% of the heather in a field to be burned and/or flailed in a single year before the entire area of burned and/or flailed heath is deemed ineligible.

Other common ineligible vegetation includes bracken and scrub, such as hawthorn, blackthorn, gorse (whin) and bramble.

Areas of rush are eligible if they are well managed and cut on a regular basis. Areas of ineligible rush are either inaccessible to livestock, not in agricultural use (abandoned) or cannot support livestock, for example a swamp.

Scorecard

Scattered areas of ineligible vegetation which add up to more than 0.01ha in a field need to be deducted from claims. Table 1 summaries the scorecard to be used when deducting areas of scattered ineligible vegetation. Hedges, earthbanks, fenced off hedges and stone walls are eligible provided their width does not exceed 2m from the centre (4m wide in total). Ditches and sheughs that are well maintained, contain running water for all or part of the year and are no more than 2m wide are also eligible.

Fencing off sheughs does not affect eligibility provided the fence is less than 1m from the top of the bank.

All natural flowing streams and watercourses of any width are ineligible for payments. Woodland is generally not eligible for Basic Payment but may be eligible for agri-environment schemes.

There are some exceptions however, for example, woodland that is planted as part of an EU scheme remains eligible for Basic Payment for the duration of the scheme.

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