The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has said that some Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) General advance payments may be delayed.
In an update issued to agricultural advisors this week, the department said that it is currently processing advance payments for ACRES General contracts which will commence in the week beginning December 18, 2023.
Advance payments in respect of ACRES Co-operation contracts will commence in February 2024.
Advance payments
DAFM said that ACRES General cases that “do not clear the payment validations for the first pay run will not be paid until the outstanding issues holding the payment are resolved”.
The department cited several reasons for these payments not being made to farmers, as follows:
- Non-return of declaration in respect of Low Emission Slurry Spreading (LESS) action;
- An issue with a farmer’s Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) claim;
- The contract did not pass the pre-payment validation process;
- No scorecards received for results-based actions;
- A change has been made to the contract which requires intervention by ACRES staff;
- A mismatch between the ACRES contract and the information input on BISS 2023.
The department has urged farmers and their advisors to respond to any queries from DAFM in relation to these issues “in a timely manner to facilitate the making of the advance payment”.
ACRES
The advance payment will be 85% of the overall amount due on the ACRES contract in respect of 2023, except for money due for the rare breeds action.
The department said that balance payments amounting to 15% of the annual payment will be paid to farmers in May 2024.
As was the case in the Green, Low-Carbon Agri-Environment Scheme (GLAS), the rare breed payment is made in arrears.
This means that the 2023 claim will be included in the 2024 ACRES advance payment.
Farmers will be informed of how to make a rare breed claim by the department early in the new year.
DAFM
The department also outlined possible reasons for farmers receiving a lower ACRES advance payment than they expected:
- Where there are results based actions the score that determines the payment may be less than the farmer expected;
- Advance payments are at 85% and some farmers may expect a 100% payment;
- The maximum scheme year payment for general is €7,311 and CP core payment is €7,000. Around 10,000 contracts have gross claims higher that these maximums. For these cases the gross claim is reduced to keep within the maximum approved and set out in the Cap Strategic Plan (CSP).
- A maximum core payment of €7,000 annually is payable on results-based land and general actions, with an additional €17,500 available for Non-productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions (LAs) over the lifetime of the scheme. A total of €52,500 is payable over the five years. A separate payment will be made in 2024 for NPIs.
The department said that farmers will receive a summary of all the scorecards submitted by their advisor after their advance payment is made.
The first batch of these reports is due to be issued in the first quarter of 2024.
“If a farmer does not agree with the scores assigned to their ACRES claim, the first port of call is to talk to their ACRES advisor,” DAFM said.
The department said that scoring which may have been impacted by the bad weather this year cannot be amended, but a farmer may opt to rescore all of their land next year.
This option will be available to farmers on the BISS application screen in 2024.
Tranche 2
The department also said that to keep in line with the Common Agricultural Policy Strategic Plan (CSP) maximum limit for ACRES, it is expected that approximately 4,000 ACRES contracts will be approved under Tranche 2 of the scheme.
The closing date for applications for Tranche 2 is 5:30p.m on December 13.
DAFM said that if the number of valid applications exceeds the number of available spaces, ranking and selection will be used.
“This process will seek to reward applications with the greatest environment potential. Approval letters will issue in early 2024 once these processes have been completed,” the department said.
DAFM added that there are currently no plans to run a third tranche of ACRES.