Errors cause SFP mayhem in NI
LESS THAN a quarter of farmers and landowners in Northern Ireland have returned their single farm payment forms to the department of agriculture.
As FW went to press on Wednesday (May 4) just 8500 of the 45,000 forms issued had been sent in.
And about 10% of these have had to be returned for errors, says operations manager at DARD, Jennifer Doherty.
The most common error, she says, is farmers not completing the Field Data Sheet, SAF 2.
“In the past the IACS form has been pre-printed, as it was based on the previous year’s claim.
“But as this is the first year of the new scheme, only Section 1 is pre-printed. Sections 2, 3 and 4 must be filled out by the farmer.”
The next most common mistake is for farmers to fail to tick the “yes” boxes in Section 3 of the Single Application Form, SAF 1.
That includes question 16, to establish entitlements and question 18, to activate them.
Mrs Doherty also recommends that farmers tick “yes” to questions 17 and 19 relating to “special conditions”.
“These cater for circumstances where the area of land declared by a farmer in 2005 results in an entitlement in excess of E5000.
“These entitlements will be subject to special conditions, including a requirement to maintain at least 50% of the farming activity exercised in the reference period.”
But just ticking the “yes” boxes is not enough.
Farmers also need to fill out columns I and J on the Field Data Sheet, specifying the area of each field for which entitlement is being established and activated.
A third common mistake is with Section 2 of SAF 1, the question dealing with LFA Compensatory Allowances.
“If you tick yes to question 12, then you must also fill out question 26 on livestock numbers and column K on the Field Data Sheet.”
Another bit of key advice is that, should the farmer disagree with the pre-printed figures in column E of the Field Data Sheet, on field areas, he should hand write the field area from the last hand drawn map issued by DARD on the line below and then, on the back of the form, write a note explaining why the details were wrong.