Teagasc has called on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to extend the submission deadline for scorecards under the new Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).
The current deadline for completed scorecards to be submitted without a penalty being imposed on farmers is August 31, 2023.
Last week, Teagasc formally requested that DAFM consider extending the deadline to the end of September for ACRES scorecard completion by advisors.
Earlier this month, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue ruled out such an extension.
“Scoring of land at the correct time of the year is an integral part of the results-based payment model and is essential to ensure the correct payment rate is assigned to the land in question.
“It is essential that all lands are scored by August 31, 2023 to ensure the best period for scoring and to ensure payments can be delivered in November 2023,” the minister said.
Agriland has contacted DAFM for a response to the formal request from the state farm advisory service.
ACRES
As previously reported by Agriland, advisors have raised major concerns about the sheer volume of work involved, along with the smartphone app used to score land parcels, AgriSnap, giving trouble in areas of poor coverage.
Figures from DAFM show that up to July 8, 14% of the estimated 180,000 ACRES scorecards had been submitted by approved advisors.
There are 625 ACRES approved advisors, of which 560 submitted applications for farmers for the new scheme.
Around 300 advisors had submitted scorecards to the department up to July 8.
510 of the approved advisors have less than 200 applications, while 50 advisors have over 200 applications.
According to DAFM, there is an average of 8-15 scorecards per holding.
The department said that there is an option for advisors to share the workload, farmers can also change advisors to ensure the completion of scorecards by the deadline.