Basic Payment Scheme: guidance

6. Background to the scheme

The Basic Payment Scheme is a result of reforms to the Common Agricultural Policy and will affect farmers and crofters from 2015. There were three reasons for reform:

1. To better address the challenges of:
- food security
- climate change and sustainable management of natural resources
- looking after the countryside and keeping the rural economy alive
2. To help the farming sector become more competitive and to deal with the economic crisis and increasingly unstable farm-gate prices
3. To make the policy fairer, greener and more efficient, effective, understandable.

The Basic Payment Scheme replaces the Single Farm Payment Scheme ( SFPS). To be eligible to apply for the scheme you must fall into one or more of the following categories:

• Automatic right of allocation - for businesses who were eligible to receive a Direct Payment in 2013 and declare land in 2015.
• Active farmers in 2013 - you must be able to supply evidence if you did not apply for SFPS (for example, but not limited to, flock records and herd registers).
• Businesses in excluded sectors - fruit and vegetable producers or deer farms can apply.
• Businesses sold or leased - the buyer or lessee can take over the original business' qualification for subsidy.

If none of the above apply to you, you may be eligible to apply to the National Reserve.