Almost €210m will be hitting farmers’ bank accounts in the coming days.

Farmers will start receiving their Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) payments from next Tuesday, 20 September. Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed is expected to confirm the start of payments next week at the National Ploughing Championships in Tullamore. The ANC, formerly the disadvantaged area scheme, has a budget of €195m and is a crucial payment for most farmers. Approximately 75% of the country is classed as being disadvantaged. From 2018, there will be an extra €25m in the ANC budget.

Earlier this week, the Department confirmed that about 98,000 farmers will receive payments totalling €12.4m that were deducted from their 2014 Single Payment Scheme payments under Financial Discipline rules. Farmers have been receiving these payments over the past week.

Meanwhile, the minister confirmed that the 70% advance of farmers’ Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) is on target to be made in October. The remaining 30% of the BPS will be made in December.

By 2018, all farmers must make BPS applications online.