Farm Schemes Supporting Young Farmers

James Fitzgerald, Drystock Advisor, Teagasc Ballina

In keeping with commitments made in previous rounds of the Common Agricultural Policy, young and new farmers in the first years of their official farming careers will continue to be supported through two main schemes:

• The Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF), which is replacing the Young Farmer Scheme (YFS)
• The National Reserve scheme (set to continue on in a similar format as before).

Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF)

Qualification for the CIS-YF scheme is achieved through meeting the criteria of a “Young Trained Farmer”. To qualify as a Young Trained Farmer the applicant must:

• Be under the age of 40 – the applicant cannot have their 41^st birthday in the calendar year of their first application
• Have officially commenced farming (through being named on a herd number) within the five years previous to their first application.
• Have completed a Level 6 qualification in Agriculture – commonly known as “the Green Cert”

As well as meeting the criteria of a Young Trained Farmer, applicants must submit a valid Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) application and hold at least one BISS entitlement (or part thereof if farming in a farming partnership).

Although one BISS entitlement (or part thereof) is needed in order to activate payment under the CIS-YF, the overall payment is not based on entitlements used. Payment under the CIS-YF is instead based on the number of eligible hectares in the farmers BISS application, with a maximum payable area of 50 hectares. This is a change from the previous Young Farmer Scheme where payment was based on activated entitlements.

Another significant change from previous years, is the payment rate, which has increased from €67 to €175 per hectare upto a maximum of 50 hectares. Similar to previous years, payment will be made for a maximum of five years and any recent applicants to the YFS who have years left in their five year term are eligible to roll over into the new CIS-YF scheme and be paid at the €175 per hectare rate for the remainder of their 5 years. In these cases it is crucial that the CIS-YF scheme is applied for during the current BISS application process by clicking the relevant CIS-YF slider button.

National Reserve (NR)

The National Reserve scheme will be run in a very similar format to years previous. Under this scheme applicants can apply to get entitlements for land that previously had no entitlements associated with it (commonly known as naked land). The value of the entitlements the National Reserve will be giving out will be set at the national average entitlement value. This is expected to be roughly €155 per entitlement for this year. The maximum number of entitlements an applicant can receive and/or top up the value of is 50 entitlements.

There is no off farm income limit for applicants to the National Reserve as there was in previous years, which should open the door to some part time farmers previously ineligible for the scheme. If you successfully applied to the National Reserve previously, you are not allowed to re-apply now, as each individual can only apply to the National Reserve once.

Young trained Farmers as outlined previously are eligible to apply to the National Reserve, and the majority of applications are expected to come via this route. However, there is also an opening for applicants who do not meet the age threshold of a Young trained Farmer to apply, once they have not been farming in an official capacity for longer than 3 years and they never had their name on a herd number previously. The other requirements such as needing a Level 6 qualification in agriculture (Green Cert) and submitting a valid BISS application remain the same.

Applications under the National Reserve and CIS-YF must be submitted online before 29^th May 2023.

Green Cert

A common denominator for all applicants to the CIS-YF and National Reserve is the need to have the “Green Cert” course completed before applying. Enrolment to both Distance and Part-time courses is ongoing in Teagasc Mayo with these courses being delivered in the Ballina and Ballinrobe offices. Feel free to call the Ballinrobe Teagasc office on 094 9541125 for enquiries regarding these courses.