Arable Crops - AAPS Overview

Last Reviewed - 11/11/2004

Background:

AAPS was introduced in 1993 and developed over the years since it began. The following notes give an overview of the scheme as it was in 2004. For more detail please see the Explanatory Guide. For any current issues please see Arable Area Payments Scheme - News.

AAPS is due to be replaced by a new scheme in 2005.

Eligible - Crops:

The following crops are eligible for aid in 2004:

• Cereals - wheat, durum wheat, rye, barley, oats, triticale, maize, sweetcorn, sorghum, buckwheat, millet, canary seed
• Oilseeds - soya beans, rapeseed (but not fodder rape), sunflower seed.
• Proteins - peas and field beans for harvesting dry, sweet lupins.
• Linseed - (not fibre-flax).
• Flax - (for fibre).
• Hemp - (for fibre).

Area payments could not be claimed for crops not listed here, and could only be claimed for eligible crops when they were grown on land which also met certain requirements for the purpose of AAPS.

Eligible - Land:

With some exceptions, land was not eligible for AAPS if it was in permanent pasture, permanent crops (e.g. top fruit), woodland, or non-agricultural use on 31 December 1991.

Among the exceptions which the EC allowed since AAPS began, land that was under certain multi annual crops on 31 December 1991 could be regarded as eligible, and in some circumstances Member States could authorise the transfer of eligibility from land which met the normal requirements to land which did not.

Aid was also paid for fibre flax and hemp (but not other crops) when they were grown on land which was not eligible for AAPS but on which fibre flax or hemp was grown and received payment under the fibre flax and hemp subsidy schemes in 1998, 1999, or 2000. This eligibility to receive payments could not be transferred to other land.

Applications - Timing

Claims for aid had to be made to the Rural Payments Agency by 15 May each year.

Set-aside:

One of the conditions for claiming area payments was that large farmers must set aside a certain percentage of their land, and must comply with the strict rules for managing set-aside.

The minimum rate of set-aside for 2004 was 5% of the total area claimed (down from 10% in 2003). Small farmers were not required to have set-aside, although they were permitted to have it if they wish.

The dividing line between a "large" and a "small" farmer was the area which would be needed to produce 92 tonnes of cereals using the yield factor applicable to the payment rate. In England a small farmer was one who claims on no more than 15.62 ha (that is, 92 tonnes divided by a yield factor of 5.89 tonnes/ha).

Set-aside land must normally be eligible for AAPS payments. As an exception, if set-aside was needed to support a claim for payments for flax and hemp grown on land that was not eligible for other AAPS crops, then some (or all) of that set-aside may also be on land that was eligible only for flax and hemp payments, with the balance (if any) being on ordinary AAPS-eligible land within the same holding. Voluntary set-aside was not allowed on land which was eligible only for flax and hemp payments, nor could such land be used for any of the set-aside needed to support a claim for any crops (including flax and hemp) which were being grown on ordinary AAPS-eligible land.

Set-aside - Management conditions:

The period when the set-aside rules apply was from 15 January to 31 August, although from 15 July producers could prepare the land and sow certain crops for harvest the next year. This included a limited range of horticultural crops, being ornamental bulbs, field grown trees and shrubs, cane fruit, and strawberries.

Land could be set-aside either as whole or part fields, or as strips. Strips normally had to have a minimum width of 20 metres and a minimum area of 0.3 ha, although narrower strip widths and smaller areas were possible in certain situations.

With a few exceptions, set-aside land could not be put to any agricultural use. The main exception was that it could be used to grow certain crops for non-food use, subject to rules to ensure that the crops did indeed go for such use. Farmers who were registered with a recognised organic certification body, and whose holdings were totally organic, may grow certain leguminous fodder crops on their set-aside land.

Set-aside could not be used for non-agricultural purposes except under very restricted conditions. In addition, no lucrative use (lucrative means bringing a return in cash or kind to anyone, not just the farmer) could be made of set-aside unless the activity could equally well take place on a field with a standing crop.

The main management requirement for farmers was that a green cover had to be established by either natural regeneration or by sowing a suitable cover. Cultivation of set-aside land was not allowed before 1 July; and if a farmer sprayed his set-aside with a non-selective herbicide (one which will kill all plants) after 15 April he could not then cut the set-aside between 15 April and 1 July. The cover had to be cut short between mid-July and mid-August or destroyed by 31 August. However, it was possible to obtain an exemption from the cutting requirements for environmental or other reasons. If an exemption from the cutting requirement was obtained, producers could not rent the set-aside land out, harvest hay or silage from it, or graze their own or other farmers' animals on it.

Set-aside - '00' Oilseed rape for non food use (Representative yields):

Where crops grown on set-aside could be used for food, the farmer was required to have a contract with a processor who had to ensure that they were put to non-food uses. A further control in the case of Double Zero (00) oilseed rape was that EC Member States were required to set 'representative yields' by 31 July each year. Farmers had to deliver at least the equivalent of the representative yield to the processor, and if they could not do this with what they harvested from their set-aside they had to make up the difference from elsewhere.

The representative yields for England in 2004 were:

Southern England:

Winter oilseed rape representative yield (tonnes per hectare) = 2.24

Spring oilseed rape representative yield (tonnes per hectare) = 1.30

(Avon, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, East and West Sussex, Essex, Gloucestershire, Greater London, Hertfordshire, Hampshire, Isles of Scilly, Isle of Wight, Kent, Middlesex, Norfolk, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Surrey, Wiltshire)

Northern England:

Winter oilseed rape representative yield (tonnes per hectare) = 2.32

Spring oilseed rape representative yield (tonnes per hectare) = 1.29

(Cheshire, Cleveland, Cumbria, Derbyshire, Durham, Greater Manchester, Herefordshire, Humberside, Lancashire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Merseyside, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire, Northumberland, Rutland, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Tyne and Wear, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire, Yorkshire (East, West, North, and South)

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Yield - UK Regions & Aid Rates:

Arable area payment rates were set in Euro/tonne for the EC as a whole and were converted to Euro/ha by reference to Members States' average cereals yields in the period 1986/87 to 1990/91.

The UK was divided into seven yield regions. Originally the yield factors for each were calculated entirely separately but in 1994 they were made an average of 60% of the actual regional yield and 40% of the UK average. The seven UK yield regions and their yield factors were:

Land - Total amount in the Scheme:

The areas claimed in 2003 and 2004 were as follows:

Payments - Total paid:

After allowing for modulation and base area penalties, payments for claims made in 2004 were worth about £1,031 million for the UK, of which £888 million was for England. Claims for 2003 amounted to approximately £1,099 million in the UK, of which £949 million was for England.

Base areas - Payment ceilings:

As well as the yield regions, AAPS had regional base areas. These were designed to limit the total cost of AAPS. They were therefore set on the basis of the average areas down to eligible crops and fallowed under publicly funded set-aside schemes in 1989, 1990, and 1991, before the AAPS was introduced. If the total area claimed in a region exceeded the base area, the areas on individual claims receiving payment were scaled back in proportion.

Base Areas - UK:

Since 2000 the UK base areas have been:

Base area penalties - England:

For 2004, the paid areas for maize and its associated set-aside in England were scaled back to 33·16% of the area that would otherwise have been eligible for payment, compared with 31·80% in 2003.

Payments for other crops and set-aside were reduced to 99·69% of the eligible areas, compared with 99.34% in 2003.

Durum Wheat - Special Arrangements:

Durum wheat (the kind used for making pasta) was eligible for the same area payment as other forms of wheat. In addition, a supplementary payment could be claimed if the durum wheat was grown in England and met certain requirements as regards variety and sowing rate.

The supplement was subject to a Maximum Guaranteed Area (MGA) of 5,000 ha. If the total claimed area for the supplement was more than the MGA, then the supplement has to be scaled back, in addition to any scaling back because of the ordinary base area penalty. (In practice this never happened.)

Oilseeds - Special arrangements:

Following a successful US GATT complaint, the EC and the US signed what was known as the "Blair House" oilseeds agreement. One part of the agreement set a limit on the amount of "crop specific" support which could be given to oilseeds in the EC. The limit ceased to apply in 2002 when the payment rate for oilseeds was aligned with other crops and so was not "crop spec

Another Blair House mechanism continued to apply, although it never had effect. This concerned oilseeds grown for non-food purposes on set-aside land. The primary non-food use of these oilseeds could leave by-products which could be used for food or feed purposes. An annual limit of 1 million tonnes (expressed in soya bean meal equivalents) was set on the quantity of by-products which might be used in this way in the EC.

Payment Rates:

The Scheme originally offered different payment rates for cereals, oilseeds, proteins, linseed, flax, hemp, and set-aside. Over time the differences have been reduced, and since 2002 only proteins had their own (higher) rate. In 2004 the AAPS payment rate for proteins was reduced to bring it into line with the other crops but the reduction was almost matched by the availability of a new premium for protein crops under the legislation for the scheme which will replace AAPS.

The AAPS payment rates were fixed in Euros and were converted to Sterling each year by the average of the daily Euro/Sterling exchange rates applicable during June. The figures below give the rates for England in Euros and the Sterling equivalents for 2003 and 2004. For convenience the table includes the protein crops premium and the aid for energy crops which were introduced in 2004 under the new legislation.

Durum Wheat Supplement

2003 (Euro/ha) = 138.90

2003 (£/ha) = 97.67

2004 (Euro/ha) = 93.00

2004 (£/ha) = 61.68

All Crops (except Proteins)

2003 (Euro/ha) = 371.07

2003 (£/ha) = 260.93

2004 (Euro/ha) = 371.07

2004 (£/ha) = 246.13

Proteins

2003 (Euro/ha) = 427.03

2003 (£/ha) = 300.28

2004 (Euro/ha) = 371.07

2004 (£/ha) = 246.13

Set-aside

2003 (Euro/ha) = 371.07

2003 (£/ha) = 260.93

2004 (Euro/ha) = 371.07

2004 (£/ha) = 246.13

Set-aside - guaranteed

2003 (Euro/ha) = 405.41

2003 (£/ha) = 285.07

2004 (Euro/ha) = Not applicable

2004 (£/ha) = Not applicable

Protein crop premium (not part of AAPS)

2003 (Euro/ha) = Not applicable

2003 (£/ha) = Not applicable

2004 (Euro/ha) = 55.57

2004 (£/ha) = 36.86

Aid for Energy Crops (not part of AAPS)

2003 (Euro/ha) = Not applicable

2003 (£/ha) = Not applicable

2004 (Euro/ha) = 45.00

2004 (£/ha) = 31.57

The above figures do not allow for the effects of base area penalties, maximum guaranteed areas, or of modulation.

Payment Timing:

Most AAPS payments were due to be made between 16 November and 31 January. The exception was that when set-aside was used for growing non-food crops, the payment period was from 16 November to 31 March.

The new separate proteins premium, which was introduced as part of the reform of the CAP, has a payment period from 1 December to 30 June.