There is just over a week to go for farmers to meet the 16 May deadline for submitting the 2016 Single Application Form (SAF) to claim various subsidies, including the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and greening.

Anyone who walks into a DARD office this year with a paper copy of the SAF should probably feel slightly embarrassed given the campaign to get the form completed online.

No doubt the online system is relatively easy to use, especially if there are minimal changes from the previous year. However, where broadband speed is an issue, amending a farm map can still be a frustrating process.

This year there is even a financial incentive, with outgoing Minister Michelle O’Neill promising an advance payment if over 70% of forms are completed online. To date, over 9,000 forms are in, with 81% submitted online.

Normally, a payment advance equates to 50% of the total BPS and greening payment and is made from 15 October.

Given the pressure on cash flows, it will be welcome, although the main aim must still be to get as many people as possible fully paid in December. To be fair to DARD, that is something it largely achieved in 2015. Its counterparts in Britain failed abysmally in comparison, with systems struggling to cope with the CAP changes, and many farmers waiting well into 2016 for payments.

However, there also remains a significant group of applicants in NI without their 2015 payment, and that is those who have been rejected for not meeting requirements around active farmers, young farmers or business separation. There probably isn’t much sympathy among other farmers for this group, but as always there are some genuine cases, who are now under significant financial and emotional stress. It is only right that all these appeal cases are dealt with as promptly as possible.