Farmers wishing to participate in the 2023 Fodder Support Scheme only have hours left to submit their application, with the scheme closing for applications at 11.59pm on 5 December 2022.

There are over 71,000 farmers eligible to apply, with participation in the 2022 Fodder Support Scheme an eligibility requirement for the 2023 scheme.

The application process is via the Department’s agfood.ie facility. Applicants can apply in their own right or via an adviser approved to act on their behalf.

The Department of Agriculture released a text message to 2022 Fodder Support Scheme participants on Monday 5 December 2022 who have entered the application portal on agfood.ie, but not actually submitted the application.

As a result, the application is at draft status and action is needed to submit the application.

New application

The Department advises that in such cases the application needs to be deleted and a new application submitted.

It is important to note that these messages have only been sent to farmers signed up for the Department text messages, so if you have any doubt as to the status of your application, it is important to double check to ensure it is submitted correctly.

Application process

The application process is straightforward and should only take a couple of minutes to complete.

Log on to your agfood.ie account and scroll down to the heading ‘Exceptional Aid Measures’.

When you click on this, it will bring you through to a list of exceptional aid measures and the Fodder Support Scheme will be sitting at the top. Click on this link and then 'new application'.

Following this step, click all the terms and conditions boxes and make sure you click submit.

This will then present a status at the top of the page telling you if the application is submitted or at draft stage. The date of the application being submitted will also be detailed.