The president of the Agricultural Consultants’ Association (ACA) has welcomed the extension of the deadline for submissions for scorecards under the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
Although Noel Feeney said he was “delighted” with the extension, he warned that advisors are continuing to report connectivity issues with the smartphone app used to score land parcels, called AgriSnap.
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue announced on Friday (July 28) that he was granting a four-week extension to the closing date for submission of completed scorecards for the €1.5 billion scheme.
The new closing date will be Friday, September 29, which will give advisors an additional four weeks to complete the submissions.
The announcement followed a formal request from Teagasc that the department consider extending the deadline to the end of September for ACRES scorecard completion by advisors.
The minister is also channeling “significant funding” to support the ACA for investment in upskilling their members on the work of the ACRES scheme.
ACA
Noel Feeney told Agriland that the ACA had written to DAFM “a month ago” making a similar request for a deadline extension.
The submission outlined the ongoing issues with the Agrisnap app for scoring, particularly in areas of poor mobile phone coverage, along with the adverse weather conditions of recent weeks.
ACA also called on the department to review the severity of the potential penalties for farmers under the scheme, in light of the situation on the ground.
Farmers will face penalties where scorecards are not submitted by their advisor by the deadline.
Feeney is “confident” that advisors, who are working “morning, noon and night” scoring fields, will be able to meet the new deadline.
He also noted that advisors who have completed their workload could offer to help their colleagues, especially along the west coast.
DAFM has said that agricultural advisors may work as sub-contractors under the scheme to meet the scorecard deadline.
Just under 40% of the estimated 180,000 ACRES scorecards have been submitted already, which Minister Charlie McConalogue said is “testament to the commitment of the advisors and farmers”.