BISS, CRISS & ECO Schemes

By Shane Devaney,

Beef Advisor,

Teagasc Longford.

 

 

The new BISS scheme is now open. This is replacing what was known as the Basic Payment Scheme. The BISS payment is connected to the value and the number of entitlements owned or leased and also the area of land eligible to claim these entitlements, same as was with the Basic Payment Scheme.

Under this BISS scheme applicants will also receive a payment under a CRISS scheme and ECO Schemes. Applicants will get paid on the first 30 Hectares under the CRISS scheme at approximately €40-€43/Hectare. To get paid on the ECO schemes the applicant can pick two actions from a list of eight Agricultural Practices. This payment will be approximately €60-€65 per hectare.

The most important action is the first action called Space for Nature. An applicant needs to have a minimum of at least 4% of their land area identified as Space for nature. The landscape features that identify as Space for Nature are hedgerows, drains, stonewalls, woodland, scrub, rock and margins in Arable land. If 7% or more of your land area falls into this category then this will qualify as one action under the ECO Scheme and if 10% or more of your land area falls under this category then this will qualify as two actions under the ECO scheme.

The majority of applicants will have the minimum 10% to qualify as two actions. If some happen to be less than this then they can pick one or two actions if needed from the remaining seven Agricultural Practices. These are Extensive livestock production, limiting chemical Nitrogen usage,  planting of native trees/hedgerows, use of a GPS controlled fertiliser spreader/sprayer, soil sampling, planting of a break crop, planting of a multi species sward. If you want any more information you can do a search for the BISS scheme on the Dept. of Agriculture, Food & Marine website or also contact your local Teagasc office.

Teagasc provides a Local Advisory and Education service to farmers. They have offices based in Roscommon Town  (Tel: 090 6626166), Castlerea (Tel: 094 9620160) and Longford Town (Tel: 043 3341021), You can find us on Facebook @Teagascroscommonlongford, twitter @teagascRNLD and YouTube. And follow the hash-tag #RNLDwebinars for information about local farm webinars. Email; RoscommonLongfordAdvisory@teagasc.ie