The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) is currently inviting tenders for an area monitoring system (AMS) service.

The AMS provides regular and systematic observation, tracking and assessment of agricultural activities on land parcels.

The system uses data from the Copernicus Sentinel satellite or other data of at least equivalent value.

Under the current Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), all EU member states are required to use AMS to monitor compliance with area-based farm scheme criteria.

DAFM is monitoring all area-based schemes using the AMS in 2026.

In cases where the AMS determines that a land parcel(s) has not met the area-based eligibility conditions of any scheme applied for, payments to may be reduced, and penalties may apply.

DAFM

The department is now seeking proposals from interested suppliers who have expertise to provide an AMS service.

According to the tender documents, the four-year contract is valued at an estimated €8 million.

As the current CAP programme is due to end on December 31, 2027, the department said it expects this contact will still be in place during the transitional period to the new CAP cycle.

"DAFM anticipate that there will be changes to the AMS requirements under the new programme, full clarity on these requirements of the AMS system is not currently available," the documents said.

The department has stated that the commencement of a "full and functional" AMS service must be underway by May 15, 2027, with the initial national monitoring results due in mid June 2027.

The tender documents show that the service will be required to monitor around 1.3 million land parcels across the country over a total approximate area of 4.5 million hectares.

This will include 1.1 million hectares permanent pasture parcels, 100,000ha of permanent crop parcels and 200,000ha of arable parcels.

The closing date for the submission of tenders is 5:00p.m on October 7, 2026.

AMS

As previously reported by Agriland, over 6,000 AMS notifications were sent by the department to farmers this year.

In June 2026, the department issued 1,447 notifications for the presence of a potential artificial surface because of the AMS.

An artificial surface is an ineligible feature, particularly a permanent structure, such as a house, farm roadway, or farm building.

The second round of 3,222 notifications issued in mid-July, which related to potential non-compliances for incorrect crops and no evidence of agricultural activity.

In August, the final round saw a further 1,413 of AMS notifications being sent to farmers.

These notifications included further potential non-compliances detected for incorrect crops and no evidence of agricultural activity.

There were also notifications for potential presence of multiple crops, potential ineligible areas and no evidence of winter bird food for the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES).