Advance payments for Tranche 1 of the Agri-Climate Rural Environment Scheme (ACRES) have begun to be paid out to participating farmers across the country. In accordance with the revised payment schedule published by the Department of Agriculture Food and the Marine (DAFM) on the 6th of December 2023, payments in excess of €76.5 million are to be made to over 17,000 ACRES General participants.
This is 85% of the payment committed to for the year with the balance due to be paid in May 2024. The farmers approved in the first tranche of ACRES are due to receive an average payment of almost €4,500. This first tranche of ACRES payments will be made to all ACRES General participants that have cleared payment validations.
Advance payments will begin to be paid out to participants in ACRES Co-operation in February 2024. DAFM has announced that almost 4,300 farmers have selected the Non-Productive Investments (NPIs) option under the ACRES Co-operation.
The application window for ACRES Tranche 2 was recently closed by DAFM who confirmed that almost 9,200 applications had been received. The majority of Tranche 2 applications were believed to have been submitted under the ACRES General stream, around 30% of applications received were for ACRES Co-operation. Competition is fierce due to only 4,000 approvals expected to be issued. This will then bring the total number of farmers participating in ACRES to 50,000, which was the maximum number participants specified in Ireland’s Cap Strategic Plan.
More information on ACRES General and Co-operation can be found here.
