With the window now open to submit the online version of the Single Application Form (SAF) and paper forms due by the end of the month to farmers who applied in hardcopy last year, thoughts are turning to the information included on the 2016 SAF.

Perhaps the most important issue to note is that the active farmer rules still apply, and there will be checks by DARD inspectors again this year.

In other words, the person who has decision-making power and takes the benefits and risks on a parcel of land for the majority of the year must include this land on their SAF. This is the case even if the farmer does not have sufficient entitlements to claim across all the land farmed.

Where a landowner successfully established entitlements in 2015, and decides that they don’t want to farm in 2016, they cannot claim these entitlements in 2016 while allowing someone else to farm the land. Entitlements must only be claimed by an active farmer.

The landowner can decide to leave the entitlements unclaimed, or lease or sell them to someone else, but it should be noted that if entitlements are not claimed for two consecutive years, they will be confiscated by DARD.

The key issue is that entitlements are activated – it doesn’t have to be by the person who established them in 2015.

On conacre land in 2016, farmers should avoid dubious arrangements. They are at risk of under-declaration penalties if all the land they farm is not on their SAF. If you have been approached to take land, make sure to enquire about who is claiming what.

Finally, a note of caution for landowners who started farming again in 2015, and successfully established entitlements: a return to leasing out their land and their entitlement might lead to some unwanted questions from DARD later this year.