As outlined in the Basic Payment Scheme Terms and Conditions, farmers are obliged to declare all lands on their “holding” as defined in Article 4, of Regulation (EC) No 1307/2013. If farmers intend to declare any land parcel where there is no agricultural activity undertaken they should reduce the claimed area to zero and insert a use of “Inactive” on the application.
Further to this, the land availability rules, as set out in the BPS Terms and Conditions document, state that to claim payment under the Basic Payment Scheme, all of the hectares of land declared by the farmer to support their claim (owned, rented-in, leased-in) must be subject to an agricultural activity for a period from the beginning of the year until after the 31 May, or from a period before the 31 May to the 31 December of the scheme year.
The terms and conditions further state that in determining the eligibility of land applied upon to draw down payment, the land declared must be managed by the farmer. If the farmer is not the owner of the land, the farmer must be in a position to provide verifiable evidence that the land is available to them for the required period.
Farmers who enter into leases or letting agreements for any of the lands declared by them on their Basic Payment application must be in a position to provide verifiable evidence if requested that the land is available to them for the required period as set out under the land availability rules. Land that is declared by a farmer on the basis that it is available to them on the 31 May only on foot of an agreement with another party will only be eligible for payment if a written agreement is in place.
