General Rules:
Farmers who choose to participate in ACRES will have only one ACRES contract. The application should be prepared and submitted by an approved ACRES advisor.

Eligibility Criteria:
You must have at least 3ha of land or 20% or more of your farm (whichever is the lower) declared as forage/habitat in your 2021 BPS. You must have lands within the CP zone. Full criteria will be available soon.

Co-operation Zone:
You can view a more detailed map of the Donegal CP zone here.

Role of the advisor:
Your agricultural advisor will examine your farm holding and geo-spatial data that is available on the Department’s GLAM mapping system. They must also carry out a desktop review and a field assessment prior to selecting the most appropriate actions for your farm.

The Farm Sustainability Plan:
The completion of a FSP is compulsory for all ACRES applications. This plan helps you to select the most appropriate actions for your farm. Your advisor will help you to complete your FSP.

General actions:
CP participants have different actions to ACRES General participants. These are termed Non-Productive Investments and Landscape Actions.

Non-Productive Investments:
NPIs are actions that farmers can take on to improve environmental condition on their farm. Examples of NPIs include nest protection, dry stone wall maintenance, pond creation, winterage practices, drinking point provision, water retention measures etc. The full list of NPIs can be viewed on the DAFM website by clicking here.

Landscape Actions:
The full list of Landscape Actions will be available here.

Scorecards:
There are 10 scorecards used to score different types of habitats and species. You can view or download all the scorecards from the DAFM website here.

Payments:
Payment for actions will be made directly to you from DAFM. You should retain all invoices and receipts and track time spent on implementing actions on your farm. Payment rates for each action will be provided here when released by DAFM.