Description
Direct payments in agriculture are financial aid provided by the European Union to active farmers, in the form of income support, with the aim of supporting and stabilising incomes, encouraging sustainable practices, promoting quality production and contributing to the provision of environmental and landscape public goods.
The modalities of access to direct payments for the 2023-2027 Programming Period are governed by European Union Regulations No. 2021/2115 on the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) strategic plans and No. 2021/2116 on the financing, management and monitoring of the CAP, the Italian Strategic Plan for the CAP 2023-2027, Ministerial Decree MASAF No. 660087 of 23 December 2022 as amended, Legislative Decree no. 42 of 17 March 2023 and subsequent amendments and supplements, the circulars published by AGEA Coordination and Provincial Council Resolution no. 1262 of 14 July 2023.
The types of intervention in the form of direct payments, activated in Italy, are as follows
- decoupled supports, composed of Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS), Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS) and Complementary Income Support for Young Farmers (CIS-YF);
- climate, environment and animal welfare schemes (livestock eco-schemes and land eco-schemes);
- Coupled Income Support (CIS): Coupled Livestock and Area.
In order to be eligible for direct payments, the applicant must be an active farmer.
Payment of the BISS is subject to the possession of payment entitlements (CAP Titles) which can be consulted with the CUAA at the following link: https://www.sian.it/titoli/pac20152020/start20232027.do
For the activation of payment entitlements held and the payment of premiums based on area (hectares), the farmer declares in the Single Application (the term used to refer to the application for direct payments), an equivalent number of eligible hectares at his disposal in the national territory on 15 May of the application year. For the payment of premiums based on animals (head and adult bovine unit), the farmer declares in the DU the herds he owns and/or holds in the National Livestock Register Database (BDN).
The farmer must set up, update and validate his farm dossier before submitting the DU to the Paying Agency that holds it. In addition, by the date of presentation of the Single Application, he must compile in the Fascicolo Aziendale the cultivation plan drawn up according to the methods set out in Ministerial Decree no. 162 of 12 January 2015, undertaking to communicate any updates to it.
A percentage equal to 3% of the direct payments, to be paid to farmers for each year of application, is allocated to the National Catastrophic Event Mutualisation Fund intervention activated within the risk management tools.