A farmer who submits a valid BISS or BPS is a person farming and/or managing the land. The farming activities can include meeting a minimum stocking rate, producing crops, cutting hay/silage, maintaining landscape features. We have received in the region of 125,000 to 128,000 applications in recent years.
In relation to the question regarding a farmer who does not submit a BISS or BPS application and is otherwise recognised by the Department as carrying out a farmer activity by other sections of the Department, such as certain parties involved in Pigs and Poultry, there are a small cohort of farmers who may apply for schemes on the basis of a Production Unit rather than land area and do not have a BISS/BPS application, who do not qualify as Active Farmers.
Finally, I wish to re-iterate that conscious of the very special role that farmers can play in forestry and in attaining our climate change targets it was imperative that a differential be re-introduced to assist farmers make the decision to plant forests. The intent of the farmer definition is to ensure that the differential is targeted at farmers. The criteria for farmer qualification will ensure that major enterprises that are not core farming entities will not unintentionally benefit from the farmer differential.
