The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has said that agricultural advisors may work as sub-contractors in a bid to meet the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) scorecard deadline.
Advisors will have to visit their clients’ farms over the coming months to complete the scoring, required under the new €1.5 billion scheme, ahead of the submission deadline of August 31, 2023.
Mandatory in-field training being run by the department for ACRES advisors on how to complete scorecards is almost complete.
However, concerns have been raised about the workload facing advisors as 46,000 farmers have been accepted into the new scheme.
The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue has been urged to scrap proposed penalties for farmers if their advisor is late in submitting the scorecard.
ACRES
DAFM contacted ACRES advisors yesterday (Monday, June 19) to inform them that they can now register as a sub-contractor under the scheme.
The department explained that the decision is to “assist ACRES advisors to manage the volume of scorecards within this timeframe”.
“ACRES advisors may work with more than one agency to achieve this target,” it said.
The email, seen by Agriland, outlines a series of steps which advisors must undertake if they wish to be subcontracted to another agency.
This includes that the advisor and the new agency fill out a special “ACRES SUBCON” form, available on the DAFM website.
The department’s ACRES section will then create “a new association” between both parties; this will be confirmed by email.
Following this, the advisor will have to obtain permission from the agency’s farmer clients to carry out the scorecard work on their behalf.
DAFM
Meanwhile, the DAFM is currently working to resolve some issues with the smartphone app which allows advisors to record field scores for ACRES in real time.
“The department is aware that some ACRES advisors may be experiencing difficulties in using AgriSnap in areas of poor mobile phone coverage (in offline mode).
“A solution is currently being worked on which will be uploaded as soon as possible,” it said.
“The app is currently being populated with scorecards and this process will continue over the coming weeks.
“Advisors have already completed a number of scoring assessments via the app and are engaging well with this facility,” DAFM said.