The closing date for applications under two Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine schemes is coming up this week.
Both the Tillage Incentive Scheme and the Protein/Cereal Mix Crop Scheme will close to applications on Wednesday (July 20).
Letters will already have issued to eligible applicants, based on the crops declared in the recipients 2022 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application.
These declared crops are the basis for entry into these schemes and for any future payments under the schemes.
Farmers still wishing to apply for the schemes can do so themselves, or through their farm advisors, by logging into the ‘exceptional aid system’ on agfood.ie before the closing date.
The aim of these schemes is to incentivise farmers to grow more tillage and protein crops to reduce the dependency on imported feed material.
For areas of crops to be eligible under the Tillage Incentive Scheme, the land must not have been in tillage production in 2021. A payment of €400/ha is proposed, and the proposed budget is €10 million.
The scheme aims to incentivise the growing of barley, wheat, oats, rye, oilseed rape, maize and beet.
In order to receive payment, there must be an increase in the total tillage crops grown on the holding this year compared to last year.
For the Protein/Cereal Mix Crop Scheme, a budget of €1.2 million has been set aside, which will be paid at a rate of €150/ha (this is separate to funding provided through the Protein Aid Scheme).
Eligible protein crop seed must account for at least half of the protein/cereal seed mix.
Eligible crops for the protein element of the seed mix are beans, peas and lupins, while eligible cereals are wheat, oats, barely, rye and triticale.
Announcing the scheme in May, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue argued: “Supporting domestic production of protein crops will reduce Ireland’s reliance on imported feed materials.
“These payments reflect a contribution towards the increase in the cost of growing crops in 2022,” he added.