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Arable Area Payment Scheme 2004
APPENDIX 3: BASE AREA (PRODUCTION CEILING) AND PAYMENT RATES
1. There is a limit on the total area that can be claimed for AAPS aid. However, there is no limit on the area of land on which individual farmers can claim AAPS aid, as long as the land is eligible, is growing eligible crops and meets the other scheme rules.
Regional base area
2. For Scotland, there is a single base area made up of LFA and non-LFA land.
3. The base area is the average number of hectares used to grow cereals, oilseed rape and protein crops, as put forward by farmers in their census returns. That land must also have entered into the five-year set-aside scheme in 1989, 1990 and 1991 and the one-year
set-aside scheme in 1991. The base area was amended in 1994 so that linseed could be included in the AAPS.
4. The total area on which we pay claims in a base area cannot be bigger than the average area sown to eligible crops, and in set-aside, in 1989 to 1991. If in any year, total AAPS claims and all land in eligible arable crops declared as forage in the AAA are more than the base area, we will reduce the AAPS payment rates proportionately.
Announcing the penalties
5. By early November 2004, we will announce the financial penalty resulting from any Scottish base-area overshoot in 2004. Please look for details in the farming press or check the position with your local area office.
Payment rates
6. The payment rates are based on the standard EU currency (euro) rates for each tonne, which are then converted to rates for each hectare using historic average cereal yields in each region. The euro rates will be converted into sterling at the average exchange rate that applies in June 2004. The rates quoted here are examples only and are currently in force. The Council of Agriculture Ministers could decide to amend the payment rates in the future. The full payment rates for Scotland (not including modulation) at the rate of exchange on 1 July 2003 (one euro = 0.703188) are set out overleaf.
Crop | Euros for each Hectare | Scottish LFA Region for each hectare | Euros for each Hectare | Scottish non-LFA Region
for each hectare |
Cereals, linseed, oilseeds, flax, hemp and set-aside | 328.23 | 230.81 | 357.21 | 251.19 |
Protein crops | 377.73 | 265.62 | 411.08 | 289.07 |
Guaranteed set-aside (entered into in 1999) | 358.60 | 252.16 | 390.27 | 274.43 |
MODULATION
7. The UK has now put into practice a rural development programme (RDP) that will benefit farmers, the rural economy and the environment. To finance part of that programme, the UK has introduced modulation in order to present the funding in a fair and open way.
8. Modulation is recycling a small proportion of direct payments made to farmers under CAP commodity regimes into rural development measures. In 2004, 3.5% of your AAPS payments (after any base-area overshoot or IACS penalty has been taken off) will be recycled to help fund the RDP. Every pound recycled in this way will be matched by another pound from the Government and returned to the rural economy through RDP.
Payment dates
9. We will normally make payments for cereals, linseed, oilseeds, protein crops, flax, hemp and set-aside between 16 November 2004 and 31 January 2005. This period is extended to 31 March 2005 for payments for set-aside land in non-food crops.
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