Among a number of changes being made to direct payments in 2021, Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots has announced that a pilot scheme is to be rolled out for arable farmers to grow combinable protein crops.

Speaking at Stormont, the minister gave the example of a scheme in the Republic of Ireland where payments of €100 per acre are available for growing the likes of beans, peas and sweet lupins.

“I intend to introduce it for 2021 on a pilot basis and then refine the approach for subsequent years to maximise the economic and environmental benefits,” he said.

Minister Poots also re-committed to removing greening requirements for arable farmers from 2021 onwards. It means that the greening payment will be incorporated into BPS entitlement values for all NI farmers.

Regional reserve

Other changes include a new limit on the maximum number of BPS entitlements that a young farmer or new entrant can receive from the regional reserve. It is to be capped at 90 from next year onwards.

Until now, regional reserve applicants could receive unlimited numbers of entitlements at the NI average of €330/ha to cover large areas of land.

Minister Poots said that the change will “reduce the incentive to submit speculative claims or to exploit the reserve”.

I believe that the reduction of the payment to zero is an adequate deterrent against speculative claims

Penalties for over-claiming land will be limited to 100% of payments for the year that the over-declaration is discovered.

At present, if a farmer is found to have claimed large areas of ineligible land for several years, the financial penalty can be bigger than their annual payment and the penalty must then be applied to payments in future years.

“I believe that the reduction of the payment to zero is an adequate deterrent against speculative claims,” Minister Poots said.

Capping payments

The DUP politician also made clear that the primary aim of the initial changes to the BPS is not to alter the amount of funding that individual farmers receive next year.

However, he said that he wants to make a technical adjustment to deliver a “neutral solution” to capping payments for large landowners in the 2021 scheme year.

While he did not provide further details on that technical adjustment, it is understood to relate to the current cap on payments, which is set at €150,000 for the basic payment scheme (BPS). When the greening payment is added in, the cap is actually around €215,500, and not including payments from the young farmers scheme.

I would prefer to see the money spread more evenly

With the greening payment being incorporated into BPS entitlements in 2021, an adjustment to the €150,000 cap is required.

But going forward, Minister Poots also highlighted that he wants to look again at these top-end payments.

“I would prefer to see the money spread more evenly and to see a greater proportion of farmers who are not just as large in scale receiving it. I have asked officials to bring forward options for consideration” he said.

Frozen

It is also understood that overall entitlement values for 2021 will remain frozen at 2019 levels. By 2019 all entitlements had moved five steps of seven to a fully flat rate payment. While the Minister could allow further flattening of payments, there has not been a strong industry lobby pushing for that.