The revised boundaries for disadvantaged areas are set to operate in two years’ time for the 2018 Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) scheme.

The Department of Agriculture has been told by the European Commission that it must submit a new list of disadvantaged areas by June 2017 in order to be able to operate the ANC in 2018. This has been spelled out to all EU member states by the Commission.

The revision introduces new criteria for determining if land qualifies as disadvantaged. This means that some areas currently qualifying will no longer do so, while some areas previously excluded will now qualify.

In turn, that means that some farmers who qualified for payment for the past 40 years – originally as Headage and then Disadvantaged Areas Scheme – will lose out. Other farmers will receive payment for the first time.

The current criteria for disadvantaged areas status includes socioeconomic factors. However, under the revision, the criteria used will be mainly physical factors such as climate, including rainfall levels; soil, including drainage, texture and depth; and terrain, including slope.

The Department has now agreed with the Commission on the details of operating these criteria and some of these are different to what was first proposed by the Commission. For example, it was originally suggested that the basic unit examined would be an economic area.

It’s now agreed that it will be smaller district electoral divisions (DED).

A DED can qualify if 60% of the land in it meets at least one of the qualifying criteria. Previously, a 66% threshold was proposed. Soil that is saturated for 230 days will qualify (a 260-day threshold was first proposed).

The Department is currently reviewing disadvantaged areas using information from the Teagasc Irish Soil Information System and Met Éireann.

About 75% of the country is currently classified as disadvantaged, 100,000 farmers apply for payment under ANC and average payment is now €2,300.

The current budget for the scheme is €205m but the programme for Government promises an additional €25m per year for the scheme, starting in 2018 and coinciding with the new boundaries.

The farm organisations have already lobbied the Department on the revision. At a recent meeting, IFA rural development chair Joe Brady told Department officials that his members want existing disadvantaged areas protected in the review.

“Payments under ANC should broadly reflect natural constraints,” he said. He has called for the additional €25m top-up to be brought forward to 2017.