Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue announced an unharvested crops payment last week. Those able to avail of the payment need to apply by Friday 24 November.

The rate of payment is €1,000/ha. The minimum eligible area for payment is 2ha and the maximum eligible area is 20ha.

The Department says: “The aid is available to all growers who were unable to harvest cereal crops due to wet weather in September and October 2023.”

Eligible crops include barley, oats, wheat and rye. These crops must have been successfully established and managed to best commercial practice.

The crops need to have been declared on the grower’s 2023 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application.

Application

Growers need to fill out an application form with their herd number, contact details and the LPIS number of the unharvested crop, the crop type, the area declared in the BISS 2023 application and the area declared unharvested.

The application needs to be signed and dated by all people on the herd number, partnership or the company secretary.

This means that those who harvested headlands or some of a field can still be paid on the remainder of the field.

Do not disc or incorporate

All parcels under the scheme will be inspected. The Department states: “The unharvested crop must be visible on the day of inspection.

"Any areas that have been mulched, cultivated, resown or other activities carried out where it is not possible to visually verify the area as unharvested will be deemed ineligible under the scheme.

“These activities cannot be carried out until the parcel declared has been inspected by and confirmed by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine as eligible for support under this scheme.”

Hopefully, inspections start soon so farmers can begin to manage these crops from 1 December, as there is a lot of bulk and grain which will cause issues for establishing the next crop.

Postal or email applications

Applications can be posted or emailed to the Department. If you are filling out the form later in the week, email is advisable to make sure it gets there on time.

The email address to send applications to is unharvestedcropscheme@agriculture.gov.ie.

Postal applications can be sent to Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine,Crop Policy, Evaluation & Certification Division, Admin Building, Backweston Campus, Celbridge, Co Kildare, W23X3PH.

Click here for a link to the application form and terms and conditions of the scheme.