Food and feed hygiene for farmers and growers
Cross-compliance
Cross-compliance refers to the requirements farmers must meet in order to fufill payments under a number of schemes.
Cross-compliance responsibilities
It is important that you are aware of your responsibilities regarding cross-compliance requirements. These apply to you if you receive direct payments under Common Agricultural Policy support schemes or certain rural development schemes. Be aware that your payments may be reduced if you do not comply with these requirements.
There are three aspects of cross compliance, including:
- specific European legal requirements, known as Statutory Management Requirements
- domestic legal requirements requiring you to keep your land in Good Agricultural and Environmental Condition
- requirements to maintain a level of permanent pasture not included in the crop rotation for five years or more - note that this is not currently a cross compliance requirement for individual farmers, but may become one in future years
Under current operating arrangements for Northern Ireland, feed products produced in NI or placed on the NI market will continue to follow EU rules.
Cross compliance requirements apply in addition to your underlying obligations under European and UK legislation. Remember, you may face other penalties if you do not meet these obligations, as well as risk losing payments.