A number of Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) schemes have opened for application today (Monday, June 27).
Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue, has announced that the DAFM is now issuing letters to eligible applicants of the Tillage Incentive Scheme and Protein/Cereal Mix Crop Scheme.
These letters are based on the crops declared on their 2022 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) application.
These declared crops are the basis for entry into these schemes and for any future payments under the schemes.
Farmers can apply for the schemes themselves, or through their farm advisors, by logging into the ‘exceptional aid system’ on www.agfood.ie, according to the DAFM
Applications will be accepted up to and including July 20.
The aim of these schemes is to incentivise farmers to grow more tillage and protein crops to reduce the dependency on imported feed material.
The payment rates are €400/ha for the Tillage Incentive Scheme and €150/ha for the Protein/Cereal Mix Crop.
Tillage Incentive Scheme
This scheme aims to incentivise the growing of barley, wheat, oats, rye, oilseed rape, maize and beet. There are two key eligibility requirements:
- There must be an increase in the total tillage crops grown on the holding in 2022 versus 2021;
- The land on which the additional eligible crops are grown for this scheme must have been in grassland or one of the other non-tillage crops listed below in 2021.
Protein/Cereal Mix Crop
This scheme aims to incentivise the growing of beans, peas, lupins and protein/cereal mix crop.