The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has confirmed to Agriland that almost 1,500 Area Monitoring System (AMS) notifications were sent to farmers over the past week.

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

The system interprets Sentinel satellite imagery which enables the department to determine agricultural activities on the 1.3 million declared land parcels in the country.

Parcels monitored by AMS will have colour-coded results: green; yellow; or red.

Parcels flagged by AMS as green and yellow indicate a degree of confidence that the land details in the farmer’s application have been verified by AMS and payments may be made.

A land parcel flagged by AMS as red indicates an error which may result in a notification being issued to the applicant on their AgFood account, along with a request to submit geotagged photographs.

AMS notifications

In June, 1,447 notifications were issued for the presence of a potential artificial surfaces because of the AMS.

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

DAFM said that farmers and or their farm advisory system (FAS) advisor may reply to these notifications until 8 July 2026.

The second round of notifications will issue in mid-July and will notify on potential non-compliance detected for incorrect crops and no evidence of agricultural activity.

A third round of notifications is due to issue mid-August.

They will flag potential non-compliance detected for incorrect crops, multiple crops, potential ineligible areas, no evidence of agricultural activity and no evidence of ACRES winter bird food.

The deadline for receipt of completed responses for round 2 and 3 will be September 1, 2026.

In 2025, the department issued 5,589 AMS notifications with an 85% response rate.