ANC Scheme stand for the Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme. The ANC Scheme provides for a payment on eligible hectares of forage land in the Severely Disadvantaged Area to compensate for all or part of the additional costs and income forgone related purely to the constraints for agricultural production in the area. Michelle O’Neill, the minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, recently announced ANC payment rates.
The ANC Scheme is a new measure in the Department’s 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme. This Scheme has replaced the Less Favoured Areas Compensatory Allowances Scheme, with farmers claiming for ANC payments as part of their 2015 Single Application.
Payment rates will be £56.47 per hectare for the first 200 hectares, and £42.35 per hectare above 200 hectares.
Announcing the rates of payment Minister O’Neill said: “In June 2014, I announced that there would be an Areas of Natural Constraint Scheme in Pillar II for the first two years of the current CAP period, with a review thereafter. This is the first year of that Scheme with claims made in May 2015.
“The payment rate for the first 200 hectares of eligible forage land claimed will be £56.47 per hectare, and the payment rate for eligible forage land claimed above 200 hectares will be £42.35 per hectare. The split rates are a requirement of the new EU Regulation which states that payments must be degressive above a threshold level of claimed area per holding.”
The Minister concluded: “I appreciate that the past year has been a difficult one for farmers, and the farmers in the SDA are no exception to this. I am therefore pleased to announce that ANC payments will begin to issue in early March 2016 and most payments should be processed before the end of that month.” (SOURCE)
For more information about the ANC Scheme payments please visit the DARD website.