The Department of Agriculture’s scheme payments update for the week ending 8 March shows that payments took place this week across a higher number of schemes.

The highest level of payment was in the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP), with €4.95m paid to approximately 1,438 applicants.

The payments are mainly to applicants who had not received payment due to QA status, while there has also been top-up payments where farmers submitted survey data.

Payments also took place across the three tillage schemes.

There was €0.58m paid to 129 applicants in the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM), bringing total payments to €15.07m paid to 3,250 participants.

There was €0.34m paid under the Tillage Incentive Scheme to 37 more applicants. This brings the total level of payment to €8.38m paid to 2,907 participants.

There was also €0.2m paid under the Protein Aid Scheme to 14 farmers. Funding of €9.98m has now been paid to 1,526 participants.

Eco Scheme

There was a sizeable level of funding amounting to €2.43m paid out under the Eco Scheme, bringing total payments above the €300m mark to 117,413 participants.

In the region of 100 farmers received payment under the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and the Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), with €1.1m paid in the last week. This brings total payments to €820.4m paid to 119,396 participants.

Payments under the Areas of Natural Constraint (ANC) are running at a low level, with a high percentage of farmers now paid. In the region of €0.12m was paid this week, with another 41 farmers added to the payment list.

Payments also continue under the 2023 Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) at a steady rate, with just shy of €0.5m paid again this week.

Some €468,950.68 was paid to 35 applicants, bringing the total payment to date to approximately €39m paid to 3,822 farmers.

There is in the region of 4,000 farmers participating in the scheme, meaning there is less than 200 farmers left to receive their 2023 payment.