« Previous | Contents | Next »
Listen
Arable Area Payment Scheme 2004
APPENDIX 2: SMALL PRODUCERS
1. Small producers are those who claim on an area no greater than that needed to produce 92 tonnes of crops at the past reference yields used for making AAPS payments. They receive the same rates of payment as other farmers claiming but do not have to set aside any land.
2. The maximum area that small producers can claim is 17.66 hectares in the Scottish LFA and 16.23 hectares in the Scottish non-LFA.
3. If you want to work out whether obligatory set-aside applies to the area you intend to claim on, you should do the following.
If the total figure is less than or equal to 92, you do not have to set aside any land. If the figure is greater than 92, you must set aside at least the obligatory percentage of land to make sure you receive full payment on the claimed cropping area.
The historical reference yields used above are for Scotland. If you are claiming on land in more than one yield region, you should refer to Appendix 5.
4. You may put forward a claim with too much land to qualify as a small producer, but with no set-aside land or not enough set-aside land to meet the obligatory requirement. In this case, your local area office will reduce your claim. There is no penalty if claims are reduced in this way. The claim will be reduced:
- by reducing the cropped area claimed to that supported by the area of eligible
set-aside in the claim; or - to the equivalent to the 92 tonnes limit;
whichever is greater.
When reducing claims, the area of each crop claimed will be reduced in proportion to the areas you originally claimed.
5. You can voluntarily choose to set aside land. You should treat the area of this set-aside as an area of crops for the purpose of working out the area you can claim without obligatory
set-aside. Voluntary set-aside can also be reduced if necessary, and must follow the normal set-aside rules.
« Previous | Contents | Next »