Advance payments under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability Scheme (CRISS) have started today (Thursday, October 22).

These payments are worth more than €551 million to 110,089 farmers.

But which county will have the highest number of farmers set to receive BISS and CRISS payments?

According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) - the largest payment in the region of €64 million - will go to more than 10,000 farmers in County Cork.

Here is a county-by-county breakdown of the latest payments:

According to DAFM, BISS is designed to provide a direct income support to Irish farmers to underpin their continued sustainability and viability.

Meanwhile CRISS is designed to redistribute Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) funds from larger farms to medium and smaller sized farms.

To qualify for BISS payments farmers must have one eligible hectare of land for each BISS payment entitlement.

They must also have a herd number and be an active farmer.

The maximum BISS payment a farmer can received in any one scheme year is capped at €66,000.

In order to receive a CRISS payment farmers must hold at least one BISS payment entitlement, or part of an entitlement.

All active farmers can qualify for CRISS payments on their first 30 hectares of eligible land.

The payment rate is likely to be in the region of €40 to €43 per hectare.

Payments

DAFM has confirmed that it received 122,151 applications for the schemes payments from farmers and currently 116,831 of these farmers are eligible for payment under BISS and CRISS.

The department has warned that if farmers do not meet all of the conditions of the scheme they may receive a reduced payment or no payment.

The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon, today advised eligible farmers who may have "outstanding requests for documentation" from his department to respond to these quickly, so payments can be processed.