The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine has today (Wednesday, June 19) confirmed that Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) balancing payments will start this week.
Minister Charlie McConalogue said: “Payments will issue to 26,677 ACRES Tranche 1 participants across both the ACRES General and ACRES Co-operation approaches.
“As participants received either an advance payment last November or an interim payment of €4,000 or €5,000 in February and March of this year, the €21.1 million in payments that I am announcing today are balancing payments”.
According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) payments made to date to ACRES participants now total “almost €230 million.”
DAFM has outlined that in the region of 4,000 more farmers will be issued a balancing payment before the end of June, subject to clearance.
Following this, payments will continue to issue on a fortnightly basis as contracts are cleared for payment.
Each recipient will also receive a letter from DAFM detailing information about the scores that determined the level of their payment.
According to the department there will be opportunities for ACRES CP participants “to add value and increase the level” of their annual payment over the lifetime of their contracts.
“A farmer’s contract under ACRES is for five years, and ACRES CP participants will be able to avail of Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) and Landscape Actions (LAs) to improve environmental outcomes and to increase the score received and ultimately, the level of payment,” DAFM stated.
In addition to the core payment to a maximum of €7,000 per year that is available to CP participants, a further €17,500 is available over the five-year period of the scheme for the implementation of NPIs and LAs, bringing the potential ACRES contract value for CP participants to €52,500 over the five years.
Decision letters in relation to the Tranche 1 NPI application process are planned to issue before the end of this year, and it is anticipated that the application window for Landscape Actions will open early in 2025, the department also outlined.
ACRES
Meanwhile DAFM today also announced that in partnership with the ACRES Co-operation Project (CP) Teams it has developed a number of information leaflets that provide “an overview” of the way in which payments are calculated.
The department said this is in recognition of the “large-scale results-based element of ACRES, which will be new for many participants”.
The information leaflets are available to access on DAFM’s website.
Minister Charlie McConalogue today acknowledged that “scoring, and associated results-based payments, is a new approach for a lot of farmers”.
“I was pleased to have been able to secure places for all farmers that wanted to participate in ACRES Tranche 2, bringing the total number of farmers in the scheme to over 54,000.
“These applicants will shortly receive an information pack consisting of an approval summary – which will give them information on the actions approved under their contract – and a copy of the Farmland Plant Identification book.
“This is an important guide for farmers to help identify a variety of plants that can have a beneficial effect on our biodiversity and the scoring of their land for the results-based payments,” Minister McConalogue added.