Approval letters begun issuing this Friday 12 April for the second tranche of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue confirmed those in the co-operation stream of the scheme will receive their approvals first.

Approvals for farmers who applied to the co-operation portion of the scheme are now available on AgFood, with acceptance information on the general portion of the scheme expected in the coming days.

“The issuing of approval letters has now commenced to more than 2,300 ACRES co-operation applicants.

“As the priority is for farmers to know as soon as possible whether their application has been accepted, the notification will be available on AgFood accounts in the first instance today, with formal letters to follow shortly.

“Approvals in respect of valid applications for the ACRES general approach are expected to commence in the coming days,” Minister McConalogue said.

Score cards

Referring to the ACRES co-operation approvals, the minister said the next step in the process is the assignment of scorecards by the ACRES co-operation project (CP) teams in the eight geographical zones.

He said this will allow the relevant holdings to be scored by advisers during the summer months.

Farmers in tranche one are still waiting for initial score card results.

Approvals

These approvals will bring the total number of farmers in ACRES to 55,000, the minister said.

“This represents a 10% increase in the level of participation over what was originally envisaged, which is an immensely positive reflection of the level of farmer interest in agri-environmental and climate measures, and will, for example, mean that an additional area of approximately 100,000ha will be brought into meaningful environmental action,” he added.

Tranche two of ACRES was originally oversubscribed, with the scheme initially earmarked to accommodate 50,000 farmers in total. This was increased to include all valid applications.