The introduction of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS)

The new CAP Reform for farmers will be replacing the Single Payment Scheme in 2015 with the introduction of the Basic Payment Scheme. Get prepared by organising your maps quickly and easily with Pear Technology.

Pear’s rural land management mapping software, PT-Mapper, allows you to cover all the forthcoming requirements, including:

Greening

As a farmer, you will need to comply with three “greening measures”. These three measures will affect up to 30% of the BPS payment, so it is important to ensure you are compliant with the requirements. Additional EFA options may be added in time, but initially the three areas are:

Ecological Focus Areas

Buffer strips and hedges count as high importance EFAs and are weighted highly. However, farmers deciding to use hedgerows as part of their EFA could face a significant delay to their payment because of the mapping requirements. It is therefore important to submit suitably mapped claims as soon as possible.

Crop diversification

Environmentally beneficial crops, such as nitrogen fixing, catch crops and cover crops are included. There will be no restrictions on inputs (pesticides and fertilisers). The list of crops counting towards this requirement is to be published shortly.

Maintenance of permanent grassland

This relates to land lying fallow where you have sown with environmental seed mixes such as wild bird seed mix and pollen and nectar mixes.

Weightings and coefficients

These weightings will affect how much each option will count for on the ground:

Features	Conversion factor	Weighting factor	Ecological focus area

Buffer strips	6	1.5	9m²
Hedges	5	2	10m²
Catch crops/green cover	n.a	0.3	0.3m²
Nitrogen fixing crops	n.a	0.7	0.7m²
Land lying fallow	n.a	1	1m²

For example hedgerows 100m will be multiplied by a conversion factor of 5, and the weighting factor of 2 Result= 100 x 5 x 2= 1000m2 Please see additional documentation on information relating to double funding and decisions regarding GAEC standards.

*Document referenced from the CLA documentation

For more information, please visit:

Gov.uk- Countryside gets set to claim £15billion under CAP reform

NFU- Basic Payment Scheme – BPS

CLA- BASIC PAYMENT SCHEME

Robinson and Hall- CAP Reform 2015 – The New Basic Payment Scheme