What should farmers do if hail, storms or heavy rain have damaged their fields?

The Rural Support Service (RSS) has received information from many farmers about natural damage to their fields, so we are providing an explanation of what to do in such cases.

If fields applied for area payments have been damaged by hail, storms or heavy rain to the extent that they no longer meet the conditions for receiving support payments (the field no longer contains the majority of the eligible crop), then farmers must inform the RSS about this in order to maintain the right to receive area payments for the crop declared in the damaged field.

The farmer must submit an application to the service regarding the emergency conditions within 15 working days. The application must include photographs showing the damage. In order to identify the location of the photograph, the camera must be in location detection mode or an environmental object specific to the field, such as a tree or building, must be included in the photograph.

Only after submitting an application and photo evidence to the RSS, the farmer may make changes – re-sow the field with another crop or create a fallow field. Doing so will preserve the right to receive support payments indicated in the Single Application for the initially declared crop. The area payment application must leave the code of the initially declared crop, but the RSS must be informed about the damage in the application if the field will be re-sowed.

Source: Rural Support Service