Application process
The online application form itself is far simpler to fill in than the BPS agreement 鈥� you agree the standard and answer a few questions.
It tells you if you are eligible for the introductory level and then the intermediate pops up with the extra things that you need to do.
It鈥檚 just a case of ticking boxes for what you need to do.
The form then takes you to what fields are available and you just tick each parcel you want to put in, or not.
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There's a map on screen, and it highlights by colour what fields are available or not available and the reason why.
You can鈥檛 tick something twice. In effect it automatically rules out double funding with other schemes. It basically walks you through it.
Land cover status
A big thing that cropped up was that your profile of fields must show a status for what the land cover for each parcel is.
It might be 鈥榓rable鈥� or 鈥榩ermanent grass鈥�, for example. Two of my fields are arable fields, but because they鈥檇 been in grass for five years they went to permanent grass under the five-year rule, and I couldn鈥檛 put them into the arable SFI.
Delays
This meant I had to go through RLE1. I thought I鈥檇 test the system properly and do it through the normal helpline. At no point did I speak to the mapping department. It was all done through the call centre and it took two and a half weeks to change the status of the field.
And I was one of ten in this priority group.
I鈥檓 concerned now they've rolled SFI out it鈥檚 going to take longer to sort any land use statuses that are wrong.
Eligibility
The main thing to do is to understand what the standards require, then to go in and find out what each parcel of land cover is for your farm.
That鈥檚 because field eligibility talks about land cover and land type. Land type is what you put on your BPS. So, you might think what you鈥檝e put on your BPS form is correct as your land cover. But it鈥檚 not. It鈥檚 whatever is on another part of the RPA system.
