The allocation of money to farmers under the Areas of Natural Constraints (ANC) Scheme is set to remain unchanged under the new Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

A total of €250 million per year will be allocated to the scheme from 2023 – 2027 bringing the total funding to €1.25 billion over a 5-year period.

The map below gives an indication of the town lands that are eligible for payment under the ANC scheme:

Image source: Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine

In 2019, the ANC scheme was reformed, however, for the vast majority of farmers, the townlands they farm which were eligible up the reform, remained eligible under the new scheme, according to the department.

In total, approximately 98% of eligible townlands remained eligible under the new scheme.

In addition, over 2,000 townlands gained eligibility status under the scheme for the first time in 2019.

However, some 700 townlands – spread across the country – lost eligibility status for the ANC scheme in 2019, having being eligible in 2018.

Approximately 750 farmers were negatively impacted by the change.

The chart below indicates the land type and the category it comes under:

MountainCategory 1
More severely disadvantaged:Category 2
Less severely disadvantaged:Category 3

The rates of payment for the 3 categories of land types are as follows:

Land TypeArea2021 rate
Category 1First 12ha€148
Category 113 – 34ha€112
Category 2First 10ha€111
Category 211 – 30ha€104
Category 3First 8ha€93
Category 39 – 30ha€88.25

Applicants maintaining a combination of Category 1, 2 and 3 land, will be paid up to a maximum of 30ha except where the area of Category 1 land declared is between 30 and 34ha.

A list of all the eligible town lands for the ANC is available here.

In these cases, the payment will be based on the number of hectares of Category 1 land declared.

Payment will be made in the order of Category 1, then Category 2 and lastly Category 3. This is to maximise the amount which can be paid to an applicant, according to the Department.

Speaking yesterday, Wednesday, October 20, as the government announced funding and measures to be included in Ireland’s CAP Strategic Plan (CSP) – which must be submitted to the European Commission by the end of this year – the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, confirmed that a stocking density of 0.15 livestock units (LU) per hectare would be used to determine an ‘active farmer’.

Stay tuned to Agriland for further updates on the CAP Strategic Plan (CSP).