Scottish farm leaders have welcomed news that EU agriculture commissioner Phil Hogan is considering extending the application deadline for this year’s Single Application Form (SAF).
The application window for the SAF opened on Monday, with farmers and crofters required to submit their completed form by May 15.
However, concerns have been raised that it will be difficult for farmers to correctly fill out the form on time due to a new regime being in place this year.
Following an EU agriculture council meeting on Monday, Mr Hogan said his officials were looking at extending the deadline for the form.
In his weekly blog, the commissioner said: “We are working through the implementation of the new Cap, and one issue which has emerged is the May 15 deadline for submissions of payments applications.
“I have listened to the concerns raised by farmers and national administrations and am thus willing to show some flexibility, so have asked my services to look at pushing back the deadline by a few weeks. I will publish the new date in the coming days.”
NFU Scotland president Allan Bowie said an extension to the application window would offer a lifeline to farmers and their advisers.
“The introduction of the new direct support system in Scotland is proving to be very difficult and what’s being delivered is not what the industry was promised,” said Mr Bowie.
“Lack of detail on some greening measures, the rolling back of transition to cushion the change to the new system and concern over the effectiveness of the activity measures in ensuring that land which is not farmed is excluded has left our members frustrated and angry.”
Farmers who have used the system found it “difficult and hugely frustrating”, added Mr Bowie.
“With such a large sum of money invested into it, you would expect it to be easy to use and user friendly,” he said.
“We once described the Cap system as being designed to fit a computer programme rather than the needs of the industry. We would have expected that with more than £100million spent that the computer programme would have been much easier to use but instead it is farmers who are the ones who will suffer as they toil away to submit their applications on time.”
Responding to the criticism, a Scottish Government spokeswoman said all the guidance required to fill out the SAF had now been published.
“We look forward to seeing further detail of the SAF timescale flexibility that Commissioner Hogan has indicated he is considering, but we have already confirmed that we have postponed the opening of the Agri-Environment Climate Scheme and Forestry Grant Scheme to reduce the overlap with the SAF window,” added the spokeswoman.
“It should be noted that as of Tuesday, just over 150 farmers and crofters – out of an expected 22,000 – had begun filling in their SAF online, and we have had positive feedback on the new system. This means over 99% of farmers have yet to try and use the system – and it is therefore premature to draw conclusions about what the farming public thinks. Furthermore, fewer than half of SAFs were submitted via agents last year, and the new Rural Payments and Service system will make it easier for claimants to submit their own applications.”
Earlier this week, government issued a reminder to farmers that they must register their business online with the Rural Payments and Services website to receive support under the new Cap.
Although there is the option to complete a paper SAF form, rather than doing it online, all producers must be registered and have their bank details logged with the website.