The number of penalties handed out to NI farmers by DAERA inspectors increased again last year, the Irish Farmers Journal can reveal.

Information obtained from DAERA shows that 978 rule breaches were found during cross-compliance inspections in 2023.

As Figure 1 shows, the latest increase follows on from an unprecedented rise in farm penalties in 2022, when 933 breaches were recorded.

In 2021, there were 561 breaches identified during checks and only 294 violations were found the year before that.

Rules related to nitrates pollution have overtaken cattle identification as the most common cause of farm penalties in NI.

Figure 2 shows that breaches of nitrates rules were responsible for 27% of all non-compliances last year. Cattle tags and registration rules were the cause of 25% of penalties.

Breaches of animal welfare rules are now the third most common cause of penalties, accounting for 19% of cross-compliance fines last year.

Failure to comply with regulations on landscape features, such as removing hedges without permission from DAERA, was responsible for 13% of all penalties in 2023.

Penalty breakdown

Our analysis indicates that 65% of all cross-compliance breaches last year led to penalties being applied, which were worth 3% or less of each farmer’s Basic Payment.

The figure is broadly in line with 2022, when 69% of penalties equated to Basic Payment deductions of 3% or less.

That said, there were still a lot of large fines handed out, with 20% of all penalties worth more than 15% of Basic Payments in 2023.

Again, this is in line with the year previous, when 18% of penalties equated to more than 15% of payments.

The number of cross-compliance inspections being carried out on NI farms continues to rise, with 2,082 inspections conducted in 2023. It compares to 1,989 cross-compliance checks in 2022 and 1,554 checks the year before that.

As in previous years, the majority of cross-compliance checks are conducted on farms that are already seen by DAERA as being at risk of breaking the rules.

For example, the largest number of checks relates to cattle identification, with 742 inspections carried out last year. Of these, 547 were risk-based checks and only 195 were random inspections.

Land eligibility

There were very few issues found by DAERA during land eligibility inspections last year, which involves checking that claimed land is in good agricultural and environmental condition.

Department figures show that there were 253 land inspections last year, which led to just seven penalties for over declaration.

The total area that penalties were calculated on in 2023 came to 6.13 hectares and penalties amounted to £1,993 overall.