The Department of Agriculture has this week clarified the qualification of farmers in partnerships for Areas of Natural Constraints payment.

Welcoming the announcement, IFA Rural Development Chairman Flor McCarthy said that for 2016 farm partnerships must apply for BPS using the online system.

ANC payment is also applied for by ticking the appropriate box on the online BPS application form. Each partner will be given the opportunity to declare the lands they individually bring to the partnership.

Once each of the partners declares ANC eligible lands, they will be considered for the ANC Scheme and will be subject to the individual land thresholds within the scheme of 34ha in the case of mountain areas and 30ha in the case of severely and less severely handicapped areas.
The partnership must meet the minimum seven-month stock retention and annual stock density requirements of 0.15 lu/ha based on the stock held on the whole holding or partnership level.
If these conditions are met and both partners each contribute eligible ANC lands, and the necessary stocking requirements are fulfilled, both would be eligible for payment.

According to MecCarthy, the details will be spelled out in the Terms and Conditions for the ANC scheme, which the Department of Agriculture has assured IFA will issue shortly.

He said it was important that outstanding cases for the 2015 scheme are also treated in the same way as they applied in good faith as qualifying for more than one payment.