Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced on Wednesday that all eligible applications from the 46,230 plans received would be accepted into ACRES.

The news is a major boost for farmers contending with record input costs. As represented in Table 1, it is a particularly welcome boost for farmers along the western seaboard. The eight counties spanning from Donegal to Kerry account for some 60% of all applications. When Cork and Roscommon are added into the mix, this figure increases to almost 75%.

A significant contributing factor to the high uptake in these counties is strong participation in the ACRES Cooperation entry route. From the 46,230 applications received, 18,618, or just over 40%, were Cooperation plans. This represents in the region of 50% of all farmers in these areas applying to ACRES.

Advising on the next steps for ACRES applicants, the minister commented: “ACRES applicants will hear further from my Department in the coming days, as the formal approval letters are issued. The message for now is that farmers should wait until they receive their letters before contacting the Department or their adviser.”

Farmers will also receive an approval summary, which will show where actions have been mapped on the participant’s farm, by the end of March, as well as a species identification booklet to help farmers identify the indicator species on their land to be used in the scoring process.

BISS opening

The minister also announced the opening of the new Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), which replaces the Basic Payment Scheme. The new portal went live on Tuesday and there are several changes farmers need to get up to speed on. The first of these is that every farmer’s application will change in 2023, irrespective of whether a farmer has made no changes to the manner in which they farm.

This is due to changes in the payment of entitlements, including new schemes that must be applied for, a new active farmer status that needs to be satisfied and the identification of environmental beneficial features on maps that farmers need to confirm. As such, the ‘No Change’ facility is no longer available.

Associated delays

The minister noted that: “In order to accommodate the significantly higher-than-anticipated number of participants, access to the BISS application system for ACRES applicants will be made available on a gradual basis over the next few weeks, as approvals issue and as the required updates to mapping systems are made.”

There are also delays in finalising the entitlements position of each farmer. Correspondence issued to Farm Advisory System advisers on Tuesday night stated that all farmers will also be notified over the coming weeks of the value of their payment entitlements.

This ties in with Minister McConalogue’s confirmation that the online systems for transferring payment entitlements, and for applying for the National Reserve (Young Farmer and New Entrant) and Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (the new Young Farmers’ Scheme) will open in mid-March 2023.

Significant changes

The previous closing date of 15 May is now being extended to 29 May. The new BISS portal has replaced the pre-existing Direct Payments portal, which provided farmers with historical data regarding their BPS applications. The Department is working on updating its IT system to make this information as soon as possible.

Their correspondence to advisers states: “Throughout the application period new features will be added such as previous year’s correspondence, amendments, applications facility, temporary reference number applications, stocking rate panel and others. We are working towards a solution as a matter of urgenc.y.

Space for nature, stocking rates and active farmer

The new portal also details preliminary space for nature and GAEC 8 estimates, which are important factors in satisfying conditionality and eco scheme requirements.

Farmers, or their advisers, are required to check that these estimates are accurate and correct any features incorrectly included or omitted. The Department’s system will update as these changes are made.

The land details screen, as in other years, will present the applicant with the most up-to-date version of land parcel information that the Department holds at the time of opening.

The new portal also includes stocking rate information which is important for eco schemes and the Areas of Natural Constraint. It is also an important determinant in farmers satisfying the new active farmer status.