Advice for farmers ahead of fertiliser Aid Scheme deadline
FARMERS are being advised to check their data for the 2025 fertliser year on the National Fertiliser Database (NFD) ahead of the October 23 deadline for the Department to calculate payments under the Fertiliser Aid Scheme.
The Department of Agriculture has just announced €46.2M in funding under the Fertiliser Exceptional Aid Scheme.
Farmers do not have to apply to avail of support. Instead, to find out which farmers are most impacted by higher input costs, the scheme will use data held on the National Fertiliser Database on fertiliser purchases made in 2025.
An extract of data from the database will be taken this Friday, October 23, with the amount of fertiliser per farmer recorded on that date to determine eligibility and be used for calculating payments.
Eligibility and payment rates will be based on the following criteria:
BISS Active Status: Farmers must have submitted valid applications for the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) scheme in 2026.
National Fertiliser Database (NFD) registration: Farmers must be registered on the National Fertiliser Database as a Fertiliser End User (FEU).
Fertiliser purchase data: Payments will be calculated directly from purchasing data recorded on the NFD for the 2025 fertiliser year - September 15, 2024 to September 14, 2025.
The minimum tonnage of chemical fertiliser eligible for payment under the scheme is 2.5 tonnes and the maximum tonnage for which support will be granted will be up to 100 tonnes. The rate per tonne will be €40/tonne and the minimum payment under the Scheme will be €100.
The advice in the meantime is for farmers and the merchants to ensure all purchasing record data for the fertiliser 2025 year is fully accurate and up-to -date ahead of the October 23 deadline.
Farmers can review their fertiliser purchase records through MyAgFood.ie
Where a fertiliser purchase is missing or incorrect, the farmer should contact the fertiliser merchant who supplied the fertiliser in the first instance, as the merchant is responsible for recording the sale on the NFD.
Where the issue relates to information that the farmer is responsible for recording, the relevant information should be submitted through MyAgFood.ie
Commenting following the funding announcement, Agriculture Minister Martin Heydon said the data will provide a good representation of the group of farmers most impacted by higher input costs, specifically fertiliser costs, and “the payments made under this scheme will be a valuable liquidity support which can assist them in dealing with these increased on-farm costs".
For queries or corrections relating to NFD records, farmers should contact the NFD Helpdesk at NFD@agriculture.gov.ie