The Cyprus Agricultural Payments Organization (KOAP) implements a series of measures and schemes through the single Application for Extra Grants 2016. Through these, the beneficiaries will end up with € 65 million.
The submission of the relevant application has started on 18/04/2016 and ends on 06/05/2016.
The amount of the direct payments file for 2016 amounts to € 50,2 million of which 61,3% will be allocated for the single area payment scheme which is the basic hectare payment. It is estimated that for all the measures and schemes announced through the Single Application for External Grants, amounts in excess of € 65 million will be allocated, of which approximately 90% of this amount concerns European funding.
A significant part of the dossier and specifically 30% is allocated for the financing of Green Aid which concerns the observance of specific agricultural practices depending on the area of exploitable arable land of each applicant and whether it has permanent pastures. Agricultural practices consist of the practice of crop diversification, the maintenance of ecological catering areas and the maintenance of permanent pastures.
The period of observance and control of the differentiation action is set at three months, from April 15 to July 15. Areas to be declared as pastures and included in designated areas designated as environmentally sensitive should not be cultivated or converted to any use other than pastures.
An amount corresponding to 0,7% of the dossier will be allocated to the Aid Scheme for young farmers. Beneficiaries are applicants whose age does not exceed 40 years in the first year of application for the Single Area Aid Scheme (CES) and who are first established as head of their holding or have settled during the five years preceding first application to KESE.
In the context of direct payments, aid is available, in addition to the basic one, for citrus groves located in communities affected by the Dead Zone. These communities are in the 2016 Single Application Manual.
The submission is made through the online EAS system at the address: www.eas.capo.gov.cy using the applicant's personal passwords. New applicants must submit the relevant forms for registration in the register of KOAP applicants to the KOAP District Offices, in order to be given personal passwords to the system.
The application should also include the corresponding geospatial data of the plot that the applicant wishes to include in his application, ie each cultivated area declared by the applicant should be indicated geographically, through the relevant web application in the EAS system.
Applicants, for the correct completion of their application, are invited to be informed of any problems in the data submitted to the Agricultural Land Registry and to study the implementation manual of the single application which is posted on the website of KOAP. Applicants should be very careful when submitting their application to ensure the correctness of its content as well as that they have declared their participation in the measures / schemes in which they wish to participate, where applicable.
Landowners block plots of aid
In the event that the owner of any plot of land, who is not an applicant for KOAP, wishes his plot (s) not to be the subject of a grant to another applicant, he can state this wish by filling out a relevant form and submitting the necessary supporting documents to the Provincial ΚΟΑΠ.
These plots will be excluded from any subsidy for as long as the rightful owner wishes.
In the event that these plots are declared by any applicant, the relevant reductions and exclusions will be rejected and imposed on the applicant.
Applicants (natural or legal persons) who run airports, real estate companies, stadiums and outdoor entertainment venues or water supply networks and who received direct aid over € 5.000 in the previous year are eligible to receive a grant only if they prove that they are active farmers. the required supporting documents according to the manual of single application 2016, at the District Offices of KOAP.
"I am not applying for a grant"
Applicants, in addition to the obligations arising from their participation in the various measures, should apply the Good Agricultural and Environmental Conditions and the regulatory requirements of Cross Compliance.
The farmer who submits an application for direct aid is obliged to include in the application all the agricultural parcels in his possession on the date of land holding as such, set by the KOAP on March 10, 2016. If for any of them he does not wish aid, then he should to select as crop "I AM NOT REQUESTING A SUBSIDY", in the application.
If the Agency finds that the farmer was legally in possession of agricultural land which was not declared by any farmer in a submission year, then reductions in the subsidy amount may be imposed on the farmer who had the land in question.
For the purposes of controlling the above regulatory provision, the KOAP receives data from the Department of Lands and Spatial Planning for the owners of the plots registered in its Geographical System as agricultural land.
Source: Liberal