The Department of Agriculture has confirmed that it will again be using the Area Monitoring System (AMS) to ensure that farmers in area-based schemes, have met their eligibility requirements for 2026.
Farmers participating in the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) are advised that their participation in the scheme will be monitored by the eye in the sky, with some key dates for the completion of actions coming up.
AMS is defined as the regular and systematic observation, tracking and assessment of agricultural activities and practices on agricultural areas using Copernicus Sentinel Satellite data.
AMS interprets Sentinel satellite imagery which enables the Department to determine agricultural activities on the 1.3m declared land parcels in the country.
Parcels monitored by AMS will have colour-coded results: green, yellow or red.
Parcels flagged by AMS as green and yellow indicate a degree of confidence that the land details in the farmer’s application have been verified by AMS and payments may be made.
A land parcel flagged by AMS as red, however, indicates an error which may result in a notification being issued to the applicant on their MyAgFood, along with a request to submit geotagged photographs using Agrisnap™.
An error could include an ineligible crop sown to meet the requirements of a particular scheme, an incorrect crop declared on BISS (different to what AMS has identified on the ground) or the presence of an ineligible feature such as a roadway or residence.
AMS may be complemented with follow up checks on the ground by a Department Inspector to provide further clarification. Failure to respond to an AMS notification and to submit an Agrisnap™ may result in a delay to scheme payments.
Further information relating to AMS and replying to AMS notifications is available on the Department’s website at Area Monitoring System (AMS).
AMS will be monitoring seven ACRES actions again in 2026, some of which have key dates falling in March, as follows:
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