The Department of Agriculture last week published the final terms and conditions for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).

The terms and conditions were anxiously awaited, with advisers and farmers keen to learn what ranking and selection criteria the Department plans to use to score applications and determine who gains priority entry.

The Department is using five main criteria to score applications, with each criteria afforded a maximum score. This is outlined in detail in Table 1 below.

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Scoring and ranking explained

The first criteria, with the maximum potential scoring of 1,000 marks, is based on the percentage of lands located within a number of specified high-value habitats.

The lands in question are those which were declared on an applicant’s 2021 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application and not on their 2022 BPS.

For example, if we take an application with a claimed area of 52ha in 2021 and 36ha combined mapped within the hen harrier hotspot map and Natura 2000 map (SAC and SPA). This is 69.2% of the holding and when multiplied by 10 delivers a score of 692.3 marks.

The second criteria used is the area of land declared as forage or habitat within any one of the eight co-operation zones. Here, the percentage of lands is used to determine the score from a maximum figure of 100 marks. For example, 52.6% gives a score of 52.6 marks.

The third criteria applies to a smaller cohort of farmers and concerns the percentage of claimed lands on an offshore island. There is a maximum score of 300. For example, 20% of lands located on an offshore island gives a score of 60 marks.

The fourth criteria works off the same mechanism and this time it concerns the percentage of commonage lands declared on the 2021 BPS, with a maximum score of 200 marks available.

The last criteria relates to participation in previous agri-environmental schemes. More than one scheme can count, but the maximum score possible is 453 marks, meaning only schemes with lower marks can be combined.

Random selection

The terms and conditions also state that “where the ranking and selection system outlined above results in several applications scoring the same marks, the Department may use a random selection process to identify applications for approval”.

The Department also states that it is seeking a balance in applications across the eight co-operation zones and that this will also be taken into account when ranking and selecting applications.