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The College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) has retained its position as the top recipient of direct payments in NI.
The figures published by Defra cover all UK regions and list out all CAP-related payments, including money received from the Rural Development Programme.
Our analysis concentrates on farm related payments, including the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), greening, young farmer top-up and money reimbursed to all farmers under financial discipline.
The data covers the period from 16 October 2019 to 15 October 2020, so effectively it is payments claimed on the 2019 Single Application.
In that year, CAFRE received £235,772 across BPS, greening and financial discipline. The college has a large estate, including a 2,500-acre hill farm at Glenwherry between Larne and Ballymena.
However, there are some changes within the top 10 recipients when compared to the previous year, with some new names appearing.
Behind CAFRE, and moving up from 49th place in 2018-2019 is Rachel Maria Boggs from Strabane, a recipient of a young farmers’ top-up and with total direct payments of £227,470.
Third is Trevor and Brian Hamilton from Limavady with payments of £217,426.
However, they were placed 775th in the 2018-2019 list, and seem to have received a one-off payment of nearly £130,000 relating to a previous year.
Next is Dundonald-based Blakiston Houston Estate Co with payments of £217,063, followed by Omagh-based Glenhordial Farm with direct payments of £210,248. Both businesses were placed in the top 10 the previous year.
In total, just six farm businesses in NI had direct payments over £200,000, while 87 received more than £100,000, and 643 were above £50,000.
Excluding payments under £200, there were 24,000 claimants in 2019/20, receiving a NI average of £11,984.
UK comparison
But while NI farmers get the highest payment rates in the UK at approximately £294/ha, NI is the only region to apply a cap to payments (in 2019-2020 BPS was capped at €150,000), and also has very few large scale farms.
It means that payments per farm in NI are the lowest in the UK. The Welsh average is just over £15,000, in England it is approximately £22,000 and in Scotland, the average per farm is close to £27,000.
Farmers in Scotland also receive less favoured area support.
In Scotland, the top recipient of direct payments is the RSPB, with a total of nearly £1.6m, while in England, eleven businesses receive over £1m in direct payments. Topping the list is the National Trust with payments of nearly £3m. Just behind is the farm owned by entrepreneur James Dyson, with direct payments of £2.84m.
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