The new blog will help county farmers to ensure they know how to claim their agricultural payments before the deadline.
A new regulation of the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), which will replace the current Single Payment Scheme in January 2015, is that farmers re-register online before the scheme comes into action.
But Angela Cantrill, land agent at Much Wenlock-based Madeleys Chartered Surveyors, said they were concerned that many farmers who are older or farm in rural areas with no broadband could face major problems.
She said: “We are assisting many farmers with the transition, especially those who have no broadband where they farm and are looking to surveyors to complete the online registration in its entirety.
“But we wanted to be able to assist those farmers who have access to the internet but may be unsure about registering. To make sure our advice is available to them we have launched a blog facility.
“The blog will contain a variety of information, not just on the new regulations of the British Payment Scheme, but we believe as we head into November, when the registrations are due to begin, it will be this that farmers will be looking for guidance on.”
Mrs Cantrill said farmers are facing difficulties with many of the regulations, from proving identity – as many farmers do not have passports – to assessing whether their business structure needs to change to prevent it impacting on their right to claim.
“Purely the change of having to do things online will be a major problem for many farmers and we are hoping we will be able to reduce the amount of stress involved in the new process,” she added.
“We are great believers in business owners being given the opportunity to do what they do best and we’d rather the farmers and landowners doing what they love rather than spending valuable time in the office which is not always their preferred surroundings.
“Of course for those who are not online we will still be able to complete the on-line application for them as we previously have done but we know more and more farmers are using the internet as part of their everyday business.”
The blog, containing advice on all aspects of the scheme, can be viewed at www.madeleys.co.uk
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