The leasing of entitlements was again another popular area of discussion at Tuesday night’s CAP information meeting held in Mullingar.

Many questions raised at the series of information meetings held by the Irish Farmers Journal in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture and AIB relate to establishing the value of entitlements from 2023 onwards.

In the previous CAP plan, which ran from 2015 to 2022, the greening payment (environmental payment) was linked to the value of an entitlement and changed hands where entitlements were traded.

Big change

The big change this time around is that the Eco-scheme payment, which is funded via a 25% cut to the value of entitlements, and the Complementary Redistribute Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) or frontloading payment, which is funded by a 10% cut to direct payments, are not linked to the value of an entitlement.

Payment under the Eco-scheme (likely to be in the region of €64/ha to €66/ha) and CRISS (approximately €43/ha) will be paid on each eligible hectare.

It is thought that a farmer may require one entitlement to activate the CRISS payment, but outside of this there is no link, and so-called naked hectares or lands that are not being used to activate an entitlement payment will receive payment on eco schemes and CRISS.

As such, these values will not be part of discussions when establishing the value of entitlements for trading by lease or sale.

Therefore, the only element for discussion is the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS). Those trading entitlements need to be aware of the potential impact of convergence.

The Department’s CAP calculator will act as a useful guide to monitor the effect of convergence and can be easiest found by googling ‘DAFM CAP Calculator’.

Clawback amnesty

An amnesty on the current clawback of 20% on entitlements sold without land will be introduced for 2023 and 2024. The clawback rule on the sale of entitlements without land looks set to return in 2025, with the rate not yet set.

Farmers who have received their Basic Payment Scheme in recent years without possessing a minimum stocking rate of 0.1LU/ha will now have to prove they meet the definition of an active farmer to receive payments in the future, and this is another consideration that needs to be taken in to account.