The Department of Agriculture has released to farmers' agfood.ie accounts the space for nature values that will be use to determine eligibility for payment under key CAP schemes in 2023.
The value is the percentage of a farm covered in non-productive features, such as hedges, drains and tillage margins, used to ensure farmers can claim payment under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and eco schemes.
A minimum 4% of a farm must leave space for nature to stay within conditionality under Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition 8 (GAEC 8) in the BISS.
The CAP plan states that 7% coverage is requried to count for one eco scheme option and 10% coverage counts for both options needed to claim payment.
When applying for area-based schemes between February and May of next year, farmers will be asked to check these figures and amend as appropriate.
The value will be updated on a yearly basis to reflect farm-level changes, so a farm’s 2022 evaluation will not guarantee scheme eligibility for all years of the new schemes.
“The space for nature figure for a farm may well vary from year to year as the situation on the ground changes,” the Department told the Irish Farmers Journal.
“The updated figure, as estimated by the Department, will be made available to applicants every year when they are applying for BISS and eco schemes, and again, farmers will be asked to check it and amend it as appropriate.”
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