2010 Single Application Form - get it right or lose out

The large envelope containing the 2010 Single Application Form (SAF) and explanatory booklet will have dropped onto your mat. You should complete and return the SAF by 17 May 2010 if you wish to submit a claim under the 2010 Single Farm Payment (SFP), 2011 Less Favoured Areas Compensatory Allowance and agri-environment schemes.  It will need your careful attention if income for this year is to be protected.  What steps can be taken to ensure your 2010 SAF is right and you don’t lose out?

The new style digitised farm maps were first introduced by DARD in 2005.  They were a tremendous leap forward from the old style hand drawn map.  However, as any system is only as good as the information available to it, it is important that you check the accuracy of your farm map(s).  European Commission Auditors visited Northern Ireland farms in 2006, 2008 and 2009.  One of their areas of concern has been that farmers are not reporting mapping changes.

Have you removed ineligible areas such as a site for a dwelling house or that area of extended farmyard, road, lane or slurry tank from your map?  If not, you need to amend your map to reflect these changes. This amended map will be a good basis for this year’s claim for SFP, LFACA and the agri-environment schemes.

The European Commission Auditors were also concerned that some farmers have been claiming for clearly ineligible land.  Again there is evidence that farmers have failed to make deductions for land where there is scrub, whins, trees, ponds, as well as buildings, roads and lanes.  Before you make your claim take a look at each field on your map.  Does it have buildings or roads, areas of whin, trees and son on?  If so, make an appropriate deduction to the area you claim.  

Each year DARD Inspectors visit a sample of farms to check the eligibility of claims, as we are required to do by the EU Regulations.  The Inspectors check the accuracy of your map and if you have made appropriate deductions on your claim for ineligible land.  Last year the Inspectors began using a new mobile mapping system. Each Inspector has a laptop computer that shows the farm maps, an aerial photograph of each field and a Gobal Positioning System (GPS) which is just like the Sat-Nav in a car, to enable the inspector to determine his or her position within the field. This means that when the Inspector visits your farm he or she can see a photograph of each one of your fields and accurately measure the areas claimed. If the Inspector finds that you have over-claimed, for example because you did not make appropriate deductions for ineligible features, then we may apply financial penalties and you could lose money.

Therefore it is in your interest that you only claim for eligible land.  If you are unsure of areas to be deducted from your Single Application, staff at your local DARD office will be able to help you.

Ineligible areas of trees and scrub should not be claimed for Single Farm Payment

Harry Steele-Nicholson Inspector with Countryside Management Compliance Branch using the Mobile Mapping equipment to measure a new fence and hedge