March 16, 2023.—The Viver Cooperative is assisting with the application process, which begins on Monday, March 20, for all active farmers who wish to apply for these direct payments.

The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), a mechanism to support the agricultural sector throughout the European Union, introduces some important changes compared to previous years that farmers should be aware of if they wish to apply for the subsidies it offers. The Viver Cooperative provides users with the following phone numbers to schedule an appointment to complete the application process: 964 14 10 50 / 662 64 32 54.

The direct payments under the new CAP are intended only for active farmers. The definition of an “active farmer” includes those who meet at least one of the following conditions:

• Be enrolled in Social Security based on your agricultural activity.
• At least 25% of their total income must come from agricultural activities.
• That, if the recipient received financial assistance in the previous year, the amount must be less than €5,000
• That they do not engage in any activity on the list of excluded activities.

Key changes to the direct aid program:

Disappear:

• Simplified payments for small farmers.
• The green payment has become part of cross-compliance and is therefore mandatory.

Featuring:

• Ecosystem-based management schemes.
• The redistributive payment, which consists of providing double the subsidy for the first few hectares of each farm, with the aim of supporting medium-sized professional farms.
• Area-based subsidies for traditional raisins, certified legume seeds, and olive groves facing specific challenges and possessing high environmental value.

The following are modified or transformed:

• The basic payment, which becomes the Basic Income Support, while maintaining the rights-based system and implementing a new regionalization.
• The supplementary payment for young farmers, which extends the subsidy from 50% of the average value of a young farmer’s entitlements to 100% of the regional average value of entitlements in each region, meaning it no longer depends on the number and value of the entitlements held but rather on the number of eligible hectares; itit also raises the limit from 90 entitlements to 100 hectares, and introduces a gender-based distinction: female farmers receive 15% more.

The following remain:

• Subsidies for the livestock sector, with increases in the subsidy amounts provided for in most cases and new maximum thresholds that limit the number of eligible head of cattle; and a new conversion table for converting head of cattle to LU, in which each animal contributes a lower livestock load.

The basic income support replaces the former basic payment and is based on a new regionalization system: the number of regions has been reduced from 50 to 20.

• At the plot level, the region has been determined based on the type of agricultural use of each parcel declared under the CAP in 2020. This new regional classification is now available on the national SIGPAC system, where the previous and new regions are listed for each parcel
• In terms of rights, each farmer will begin the 2023 marketing year with the same number of rights with which they ended the 2022 marketing year. As of March 1, the provisional conversion of the rights will be available; these rights will be reassigned to different regions based on the declaration the 2022 CAP allocation for its head, and their values will also change to align with the new budget limit.

On the other hand, the rights management It is largely unchanged, with very few changes. Highlights include:

• • • In the case of transfers of rights:
      • The fee for the transfer of rights without land increases from 20% to 30% (with some exceptions)
      • Allocated rights from the national reserve may not be transferred during the first 5 years.
    • In the national reserve:
      • Conditions will be established to ensure that young people can become new farmers
      • Two new provisions for disadvantaged farmers and programs to prevent land abandonment.

ECOREGIONS

Eco-schemes are one of the biggest new features of this campaign.

These are subsidies for voluntary practices for climate and environmental protection carried out on the farm, in the areas of carbon agriculture and agroecology, with support per hectare based on the type of land where the practices are implemented and the specific practice chosen.

To qualify for the agri-environmental programs, farmers may engage in the following practices:

• Extensive grazing.
• No-till farming.
• Spontaneous or planted vegetation cover.
• Inert coating.
• Islands of biodiversity or sustainable harvesting.
• Crop rotation with improved crop varieties.
• Establishment of biodiversity areas.
• Water Surface Management.