Over 9,300 farmers have received notifications as a result of satellite farm inspections this year, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed.
As part of the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the Area Monitoring System (AMS) is mandatory across all EU member states to monitor compliance with farm scheme criteria.
It uses satellite data, gathered automatically every five days, to observe and assess agricultural activities and practices.
The AMS also uses photographs containing GPS locations produced using the AgriSnap, developed by DAFM, to verify declared crops.
This year, the system is being used to monitor the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS); Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC); Protein Aid Scheme (PAS); and Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM).
DAFM
DAFM confirmed to Agriland that it notified 9,197 farmers of an AMS notification between June and September 2023.
“The herdowners impacted had at least one red parcel but may have been notified of different issues in each AMS monitoring round,” a department spokesperson said.
Red parcels indicate that a potential non-compliance has been detected and payment will be withheld until the issue is resolved.
These red parcels could be due to several factories, including the presence of an “ineligible feature”, such as a house, farm road or building, different crops category than what was declared in the BISS application or ineligible crop types for the scheme.
“92% of applicants, or their Farm Advisory System (FAS) advisor, responded to these notifications, but only 36% of notifications included an AgriSnap photo in the response,” DAFM said.
Of the 9,197 notifications issued, 36 parcels were withdrawn in response to the AMS notification.
The department said that there is no penalty for non-response to an AMS notification.
The final round of AMS notifications for 2023 were issued on October 18, 2023.
DAFM said that it notified 107 herdowners of a potential non-compliance on land parcels declared for the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM) or Protein Aid Schemes in 2023.
“Applicants have until November 16, 2023 to reply to the final 2023 AMS notification,” the department spokesperson said.