Greening of direct payments
The starting point is to calculate how much “arable land” and grassland you have in 2015.
For greening, the calculations are based on “reference areas”, not the actual area of crop.
These new greening conditions may impact on farmers in other sectors, depending on their historical cropping pattern (for example, a dairy farmer with whole crop or maize may trigger greening).
Knowing the cropping history of land taken as conacre is also essential.
“Arable land” is any field classified as arable in any year from 2010 to 2014.
Land used for arable cropping in 2015 will be classed as arable, for the purposes of greening calculations.
This land classification can be checked with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.
Google the CAP 2015 direct payments information centre, to download the Department of Agriculture Excel calculator, in order to calculate your basic payment scheme (BPS) and greening farm payments.
The value of each standard tillage entitlement will drop by 13.8%, from €333 to €286 over the next five years, so cash flow planning will be vital.
Farmers need to work out the land bank they require in 2015, and calculate the consequences on their direct payment of dropping low-performance rented land.
It may also be wise to adjust loan repayment dates, to match the separate payment dates for the BPS, greening and any protein support elements.
If the farm is all under permanent pasture, or if permanent pasture accounts for more than 75% of the area, and less than 30 hectares of tillage crops are grown, greening does not apply.
Permanent pasture is grassland, that has been six or more years under grass.
Crop diversification requirements on farms above 10 hectares: two or three crop types may need to be grown, depending on the total crop area.
Farmers who have close to 75% of their farmed area in grass with 30 hectares or less of arable, can consider renting additional permanent grassland to secure an exemption.
Applying and qualifying for GLAS and adopting cover crops may also give scope for a diversification exemption.
On farms above 15 hectares, where EFAs apply, growers must have 5% of their area comprised of landscape features (hedgerows etc) and area-based options such as protein crops, which qualify as EFAs.
On-line maps are currently available to validate and amend landscape features such as hedges, dry drains and watercourse buffer strips.
These maps need to be checked and edited on-line immediately.
To do this, growers must register with the Department of Agriculture, on-line or by contacting the Helpdesk at 1890 252118.
