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Deals are being agreed for both the lease and sale of Basic Payment entitlements ahead of DAERA’s online entitlement transfer service opening for the 2019 scheme year.
With the current system of area-based payments not currently guaranteed beyond 2019, the cost to buy or lease entitlements is down this year.
“Entitlements are being leased for around half their value and are being purchased for their full value.
“In previous years, entitlements would have been purchased for around one and half times their value,” said Stephen Keys of Clogher-based auctioneers R.A. Noble and Co.
Values quoted for Basic Payment entitlements that are on the market do not usually include the Greening payment. For example, an entitlement bought for its value of €200 in 2019 will deliver around €288 to the claimant when Greening is added.
For anyone farming clean land with no Basic Payment entitlements, it means that purchasing entitlements in 2019 still potentially offers good value for money.
Last August, DAERA proposed to retain Basic Payment entitlements as the basis for direct payments in NI in 2020 and 2021.
In addition, the UK government has committed to maintaining payments to farmers at current levels to the end of the current parliament in 2022. After that, it is an unknown, but area-based payments could continue in some form.
“We are only guaranteed 2019, so that’s all we can market on at present, but there are customers buying entitlements on the expectation that they will get 2020 and 2021,” Stephen Keys said.
Farmers and landowners that are planning to trade entitlements this year are being advised by auctioneers to agree deals in good time.
DAERA’s entitlement transfer service does not usually open until the beginning of March, however, deals can be agreed in advance of this.
The deadline for transferring entitlements is usually early May, around a fortnight before the deadline for submitting Single Application Forms.
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