Key details of the Agri Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) have been released in the last week by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.

These include the payment rates for the various general actions that can be taken under the scheme.

All farmers in the scheme will be able to pick from among these actions, but some farmers will be restricted in what options they can pick.

This will depend on whether they are in the ACRES Co-operation or ACRES General approach, and which priority tier of the scheme they are in.

Farmers in ACRES General who have the most environmentally important land will be in 'Tier 1', giving them priority access to the scheme.

Tier 1 farmers include the following:

Farmers who are not eligible for Tier 1 may instead be eligible for Tier 2, which will give them the second-highest level of priority access to ACRES.

Tier 2 farmers include the following:

Farmers who do not fall into the above tiers are considered to be in Tier 3, reflecting no particular priority access to ACRES.

For these farmers, the full slate of actions is available to choose from.

All farmers should note the following points on general actions:

The full list of actions, their specifications and payment rates are outlined in the table below: