Thousands of acres of arable land across NI remains ineligible for Farming with Nature due to a mapping issue, the Irish Farmers Journal understands.

With the application window set to close tomorrow (Friday), local arable farmers were hopeful that the issue could be resolved this week in time for applications to be submitted.

However, this has not happened and reports suggest that up to 50,000 acres of arable land could be excluded from the second tranche of the agri environment scheme.

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Of the 14 measures available under the Farming with Nature scheme this year, five of them are exclusively for arable land. “This was supposed to be Minister Muir’s flagship scheme, but it has turned out to be a disaster.

“We keep being told, ‘Computer says no,’” said one local cereal grower.

It is understood that the issue surrounds scheme maps, which have been developed by amalgamating older maps of different environmentally designated sites. This process has meant that land close to designated sites has been automatically deemed unsuitable for carrying out environmental measures under the scheme.

Reports suggest this mainly covers key arable regions around Lough Foyle in Co Derry and both sides of Strangford Lough in Co Down.

“It is frustrating because arable farmers have lost money through cuts to the Basic Payment Scheme and this was supposed to be our way of recouping some money back.

“It is made worse because it is happening in a year when grain prices are down, but fuel and fertiliser costs have moved the other way,” another local arable farmer commented.

Various potential solutions have been suggested by farmers. One option is that the scheme reopens for a very short second application window later this summer to allow the impacted farmers to apply once the mapping issue has been resolved.

Another suggestion is that the designated site maps should be disregarded temporarily to allow all arable farmers to apply, then DAERA assess applications on a case-by-case basis at a later date by considering their actual impact on designated sites.

This could work given that DAERA already allow flexibility within the application process, with participants not obliged to carry out all the measures that they initially apply for.

In the first year of Farming with Nature, there were 876 applications, of which 784 were approved by DAERA, but only 507 claims were eventually made by scheme participants.