The Department of Agriculture’s direct payments division has flagged areas of the European Commission’s proposed flagship farm income support scheme for the post-2027 CAP that need clarification.

Its queries relate to the new degressive area-based income support (DABIS) that Brussels plans on using to replace the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability and Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF).

The scheme is planned to pay out an average of €130-240/ha, with higher rates for young or female farmers, farms in Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) and mixed farms.

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The main queries raised by the Department include how these payments should be differentiated by farm group, what percentage of funds should be allocated to each group and how the funds recouped from payments capping can be redistributed.

What could DABIS payment rates look like?

The Department’s CAP consultative committee got an overview of what the Commission sees its current DABIS proposals looking like when translated into a scheme.

DABIS could pay a baseline flat rate payment of €200/ha to the ‘typical’ tillage farm in the Commission’s eyes with no factors of differentiation that would boost payment rates.

The example gives young farmers a higher €240/ha payment rate, a higher €225/ha rate to mountain lands in an ANC and a €2,000 lump sum top-up for female farmers.

A tillage farmer with 80 eligible hectares (and no factors differentiating their payment rate from the baseline) would receive €16,000 in the Commission’s example.

The equivalent farm located in an ANC hill area would receive €18,000, as would a comparative farm farmed by a female farmer would after receiving the lump sum top-up.

If managed by a young farmer, the DABIS payment would be €19,200.

None of the examples cited above from the Commission exceed €20,000 in DABIS payments per farmer per year and so are unaffected by the proposed capping and degressivity mechanisms.

These two mechanisms would reduce DABIS payments above €20,000 with the intent of redistributing the recouped monies back into other CAP schemes.

DABIS payments from €20,000-50,000 are to face a 25% reduction, rising to a 50% decrease for payments of €50,000-75,000 and 75% for payments of €75,000-100,000.

An outright cap of €100,000 per farmer per year is also proposed to apply to DABIS.