Written answers
Thursday, 17 October 2024
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Departmental Data
Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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289. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine what percentage of AMS notifications stated that the farmer had sown the wrong crop; his views on whether there is a problem with the crop identification system used in AMS; the cost to his Department of the current AMS imaging system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42291/24]
Charlie McConalogue (Donegal, Fianna Fail)
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The use of the Area Monitoring System (AMS) to monitor area-based schemes in EU Member States became mandatory on 1 January 2023.
My Department is monitoring all area-based schemes using AMS in 2024. The AMS is the regular and systematic observation and assessment of agricultural activities and practices on agricultural areas by Copernicus Sentinel Satellite.
The system monitors all land parcels declared by over 120,000 farmers on their 2024 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) applications to provide assurance on over €1.5 billion in scheme payments in 2024 alone. This is a change from the previous inspection regime where 5% of herds were selected for land eligibility inspections and gives more flexibility to farmers and the option to correct mistakes without penalty. The annual cost of the AMS service provision is €1.13 million.
The AMS is an automated system that uses computer algorithms to provide decisions on the accuracy of declarations. Examples of these decisions include:
- The presence of an ineligible feature, in particular a permanent structure, for example a house, a farm roadway or a farm building.
- A difference in crop category (arable land, permanent crop, or permanent grassland) declared and AMS finding e.g., spring barley declared on 2024 BISS application, but a different crop was predicted by AMS e.g. a protein crop.
- The presence of ineligible land use e.g., ineligible crop type for the scheme(s) applied for.
- The potential lack of evidence of agricultural activity i.e. production of agricultural products, such as rearing livestock or growing crops etc. or maintenance of the agricultural area.
Of the 53% of these AMS notifications rejected by the farmer or advisor, 1,416 AgriSnap™ photos were submitted to support the rejection. A total of 76% of these photos were accepted by the Department. The remainder of the photos were deemed inconclusive and thus a field inspection was required to verify the crop on the ground. To date, 29% of these parcels have a different crop found in the parcel to the crop claimed and this work continues.
I believe the AMS system as validated and implemented in my Department is performing to a very high standard. It fully satisfies our obligations under the EU regulations, and offers benefits to farmers through reduced onsite checks and a means to make corrections without penalty. It provides clear and concise queries to farmers where needed, avoiding confusion or concern in a fair, open and transparent way. Within my Department, it provides efficiencies in issuing payments to farmers while also providing improved administration and control of the almost €10bn in CAP funds. As with all such systems the Area Monitoring System is also subject to continuous improvement, and I expect to see development of the system to aid farmers further in the future.
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