A large swath of arable land in the northwest has been left out of the Farming with Nature scheme in NI, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

The second year of the agri environment scheme is currently open for applications, with the window set to close on 31 July.

Of the 14 measures available in the current tranche, five are only available on arable land.

These are flower rich grass margins, grass only margins, unharvested cereal margins, retention of winter stubble and multispecies winter cover crop.

Other measures in the scheme, such as planting trees and hedgerows, are available to both arable and livestock farmers.

However, several arable farmers in the northwest have found that large areas of land are not eligible for the scheme.

Reports suggest the ineligible land is mainly located in the Myroe area along Lough Foyle in Co Derry.

“The Department is currently working to verify the area of land involved and the impact,” a DAERA spokesperson told the Irish Farmers Journal.

The spokesperson explained that the application system uses “environmental data” to determine suitable locations for implementing scheme measures.

“This limits the areas where Farming with Nature actions can be carried out around designated sites,” the DAERA spokesperson said.

Scheme timeline

The planned timeline of Farming with Nature has been raised as another issue by farmers across NI.

DAERA initially said that, similar to first year of the scheme, successful applicants will not receive notification until September.

However, arable farmers have pointed out that this leaves it very late for carrying out certain measures, such as establishing winter cover crops.

Herbal leys

The same criticism has come from livestock farmers who want to establish herbal leys.

It is understood that DAERA is now trying to get applications processed earlier, with scheme participants potentially being notified in August.

Looking to next year, reports suggest the scheme timeline is to be reviewed in its entirety for year three. The aim is to allow farmers a much longer time period to complete measures.