Online application systems open for young farmer supports
The schemes provide key services to farmers adjusting their farming business and providing for support for generational renewal.
Applications can now be made for entitlement transfers and young farmer supports.
Online systems for transferring payment entitlements, applying to the National Reserve (young farmer and new entrant) and Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CISYF) are open.
The Department of Agriculture, in making the announcement, said that this builds on the opening of systems for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based schemes applications on February 28, and provides key services to farmers adjusting their farming business and providing for support for generational renewal.
Being the first year of the CAP Strategic Plan, a range of new schemes are being introduced over a relatively short time period.
The department has said that it is important that farmers and advisors are aware of some important planned delivery dates, including:
- The closing date for transfers of payment entitlements, applications to the National Reserve, CISYF, and BISS applications, which will be midnight on Monday, May 29;
- The dates for payments for CISYF and other schemes, which are expected to commence in December 2023.
The department said it will have a number of specific supports in place for 2023 for farmers and advisors in completing these applications.
These include a series of public webinars taking place over the month of March, and in-person information sessions and farmer clinics that will take place throughout the country from the end of March to mid-May.
The department is urging farmers to engage with the application process as early as possible, rather than waiting until nearer the closing date.
Earlier this month, the department also confirmed that all valid applications submitted for the new agri-environmental scheme - ACRES - would be accepted in 2023.
There were more than 46,000 applicants, with Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue saying that farmers have shown "their desire to enhance the environmental sustainability of their enterprises".
