The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) has yesterday (Tuesday, November 3) published the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) entitlement values and greening rates.
The Basic Payment Scheme is the biggest of the rural grants and payments that provide help to the farming industry. Farmers apply once a year and payments begin to land in farmers’ bank accounts in December.
Earlier this year, the RPA extended deadlines by a month to allow farmers more time to submit their BPS applications, Countryside Stewardship revenue and Environmental Stewardship claims.
Farmers are also set to see a slight increase in their payments this year, following the decision not to make the usual Financial Discipline deduction from 2020 payments. This was previously used to support an EU crisis fund.
BPS payments for England are set in euros and then converted into sterling. The BPS exchange rate for 2020 will be the same as 2019 at €1 = £0.89092.
Rates in Euros
| Region | Non-SDA | SDA-Other | Moorland SDA |
| Entitlement rate: | €182.70 | €181.34 | €49.76 |
| Greening Rate: | €79.07 | €78.58 | €22.02 |
Rates in Sterling
| Region | Non-SDA | SDA-Other | Moorland SDA |
| Entitlement rate: | £162.771 | £161.559 | £44.332 |
| Greening rate: | £70.445 | £70.008 | £19.618 |
Under BPS, farmers need to hold an entitlement for every hectare of eligible land they are claiming on. The size of farmers’ payments will depend on how many entitlements they use, supported by eligible land and the value of those entitlements.
The greening rates have been calculated by taking the number of entitlements farmers have used with eligible land to claim payment, and multiplying them by the greening value.
