Approximately 17,700 Farm Improvement Plans (FIPs) were submitted under the Knowledge Transfer (KT) Programme.
These applications were fully submitted and completed as of the deadline of midnight on Wednesday, August 23, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine confirmed to AgriLand.
These completed applications were submitted by the relevant KT Group Facilitators; around another 400 FIPs are partially completed on the KT system, a spokesperson for the department said.
Meanwhile, on the closure of the first year of the KT Programme, close to 15,900 Animal Health Measures (AHMs) were submitted by KT Approved Private Veterinary Practitioners, the spokesperson added.
About another 20 AHMs are partially completed across the five KT sectors to which the AHMs apply – it is not required for tillage groups.
In some cases the FIP elements are submitted/completed, but the AHM elements are not and vice versa.
“Therefore, the overall position is that some 18,400 KT participants have either fully or partially submitted the data submission requirements for [the first year of the programme].
“These participants will now be subject to the standard administrative and verification checks in order to process them for payment, including verification of having attended the required number of group meetings etc.
“In addition, some further data has been received which will now be reviewed by the department for further processing – for example, some elements were received by email in cases where the person submitting the data may have experienced registration issues,” the spokesperson said.
What happens when data is not fully complete?
Cases where the FIP or AHM data submitted is not fully complete may give rise to a partial payment based on the level of completion, the department confirmed.
An applicant who has not fully completed their FIP will not be prevented from moving forward to the second year of the KT Programme, the spokesperson for the department added.
“Since the commencement of year one of the KT Programme, the department has received official notification from some 260 approved KT participants of their intention to withdraw from the programme.
“In addition to this, during the course of year one of the KT Programme, a number of groups for which KT Facilitators were approved did not proceed with the full number of farmers for which an application was made.
“These factors resulted in a total of just under 19,100 approved KT participants actually participating in year one of the programme,” the spokesperson concluded.