Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Arable Area Payments (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999, and shall come into operation on 19th April 1999.

(2) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(3) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Amendments of the Arable Area Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

2.—(1) The Arable Area Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997(4) shall be amended in accordance with paragraphs (2) to (6).

(2) In regulation 2(1) (interpretation)—

(a)after the definition of “permitted agricultural production”, there shall be inserted the following definition—

• ““plant protection product” shall have the same meaning as in Council Directive 91/414/EEC concerning the placing of plant protection products on the market(5);”;

(b)in the definition of “set-aside period”, the words “(except in the case of guaranteed set-aside land)” and the words “and, in the case of guaranteed set-aside land, means a scheme year” shall be deleted;

(c)the definition of “share farming agreement” shall be deleted.

(3) In regulation 2(2) (interpretation) for the words “the Arable Area Payments (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998”, there shall be substituted the words “the Arable Area Payments (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999”.

(4) In regulation 6 (exchanges of eligible and ineligible land)—

(a)in paragraph (1), for the words “is obliged to exchange ineligible land for eligible land within his holding for agronomic, phytosanitary or environmental reasons, as provided for in Article 2(5) of Commission Regulation 658/96”, there shall be substituted the words “has sufficient grounds, for the purposes of Article 2(5) of Commission Regulation 658/96, for exchanging ineligible land for eligible land within his holding,(6)”;

(b)in paragraph (5), for the words “on reasonable grounds that the applicant is obliged to exchange the ineligible land for the eligible land for agronomic, phytosanitary or environmental reasons”, there shall be substituted the words “that the applicant has sufficient grounds for the purposes of Article 2(5) of Commission Regulation 658/96 for exchanging ineligible land for eligible land and that the exchange would not give rise to an increase in the total area of eligible arable land on the holding,”; and

(c)in paragraph (6), for sub-paragraph (f), there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—

“(f)has, for a continuous period of twenty years ending on 22nd April 1995, been grassland, scrub or other non-arable habitat, and has not at any time during that period been cultivated, re-seeded, improved by the use of fertilisers, herbicides or lime or otherwise managed for arable production, unless—

(i)the ineligible land that is the subject of the application is situated within an existing orchard planted after 22nd April 1965; or

(ii)the Department is satisfied on reasonable grounds that the purpose of the exchange is to allow the eligible land that is the subject of the application to be entered into an agri-environmental scheme and the exchange would result in an overall environmental benefit;”.

(5) Regulation 7 and Schedule 1 (derogations from requirement to have farmed for two years land set aside) shall be deleted.

(6) In Schedule 2 (management requirements in relation to set-aside land)—

(a)in Part A (management options for set-aside land), for paragraph 1(5) there shall be substituted the following sub-paragraph—

“(5) For the purposes of this Schedule, the particular scheme year referred to in sub-paragraph (1) means “the current scheme year”; “the current set-aside period” means the set-aside period during that scheme year; “the current green cover season” means the green cover season during that scheme year; and expressions such as “the previous scheme year” and “the following scheme year” shall be construed accordingly.”; and

(b)in Part B (general management conditions applying to all set-aside land)—

(i)for paragraph 19 (application of fungicides and insecticides to the set-aside land) and the heading thereto there shall be substituted the following paragraph and heading—

“Application of plant protection products, other than herbicides, to the set-aside land

19.  A farmer shall not apply plant protection products other than herbicides to the set-aside land concerned except on or after 15th July in any scheme year and in preparation for sowing a crop.”; and

(ii)in paragraph 20 (application of herbicides to the set-aside land)—

(a)in sub-paragraph (1), for the words “sub-paragraph (2)” there shall be substituted the words “sub-paragraphs (2) and (3)”; and

(b)after sub-paragraph (2), there shall be inserted the following sub-paragraph—

“(3) Sub-paragraph (1) shall not apply in relation to the application of herbicides to the set-aside land in preparation for sowing a crop, provided that such application occurs on or after 15th July in the scheme year in question.”.

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations which come into operation on 19th April 1999, further amend the Arable Area Payments Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997 (S.R. 1997 No. 477) (“the principal Regulations”), as amended by the Arable Area Payments (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998 (S.R. 1998 No. 308). The principal Regulations, as amended, implement Council Regulations 1765/92 (O.J. No. L181, 1.7.92, p. 12), which establishes a support system for producers of certain arable crops, Commission Regulation 762/94 (O.J. No. L90, 7.4.94, p. 8), Commission Regulation 658/96 (O.J. No. L91, 12.4.96, p. 46) and Commission Regulation 1586/97 (O.J. No. L215, 7.8.97, p. 3).

These Regulations—

(a)amend the rules relating to exchanges of eligible for ineligible land consequent on changes made to Article 2(5) of Commission Regulation 658/96 by Article 1 of Commission Regulation 1589/98 (regulation 2(4));

(b)delete the provision permitting a farmer to claim set-aside compensatory payment on land which he had not farmed for the two years prior to the commencement of the set-aside period, consequent on Article 1 of Commission Regulation 1981/98, which repeals Article 3(4) of Commission Regulation 762/94 (regulation 2(5));

(c)permit the application of plant protection products other than herbicides on set-aside land after 15th July in any year, in preparation for the sowing of a crop for harvest the following year, and modify the restrictions on the application of herbicides to set-aside land where the herbicide is applied in preparation for growing a crop (regulation 2(6)(b));

(d)make a number of additional minor modifications.