Approval letters for general applicants in the second tranche of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) have begun to issue.

Approximately 6,700 farmers should receive approval letters for this second tranche of ACRES general.

Some 2,300 farmers in ACRES co-operation have already received approval letters in this tranche.

Some 9,000 farmers have been accepted in this second tranche of the scheme, bringing the total number of farmers in ACRES to 55,000.

Approval letters for all valid applications will appear in farmers’ agfood accounts, with a text alert issuing to those signed up to receive them.

Formal letters by post will follow shortly.

Letters

In addition, Minister for Agriculture Charlie McConalogue Charlie McConalogue confirmed that formal letters started to issue at the end of last week, by post, to participants recently approved into the ACRES co-operation approach.

“All ACRES tranche two participants will receive an approval summary within the coming weeks. This is an important document that sets out, by parcel, the actions for which participants have received approval. In addition, all participants will receive a farmland plant identification key.

"This full-colour booklet will assist farmers in identifying positive and negative grass and peatland indicators and in assessing the condition of these lands," he said.

Commonage

The Minister reminded participants that have commonage or have selected the low-input grassland or low-input peat grassland actions that they will have their lands scored by a CP team or their own adviser, respectively, over the coming months.