Single farm payments in England reach 40,597 producers – but less than 18% of fund paid so far

The Rural Payments Agency has in the past seven days paid another 18,650 farmers a full 2006 single farm payment – although the total paid out in the past week rose by just £84m which means the average payment was just £4500.

The total number of farmers in England who have received a full payment now stands at 40,597 or 37.5% of the total claimant population.

In total, about £284m (or 17.8%) of 2006’s £1.6bn payment pot has now been distributed.  

An RPA spokesman said that that live testing of the partial payment system was also underway.

This should pave the way for partial payments to commence at some point next week.