The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has issued an update on Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) applications.

On February 13, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon announced that the application process for the 2026 BISS, Complementary Redistributive Income Support for Sustainability (CRISS), Eco-Schemes and the other related schemes had opened.

The closing date for BISS applications is Friday, May 15, 2026.

BISS

A spokesperson for DAFM has told Agriland that up to and including March 1, the department had received 9,207 BISS applications.

Of that total, 8,107 were submitted by agents and the remainder were directly submitted directly by farmers.

Of the 9,207 applications submitted to date, 8,768 have also applied for the Areas of Natural Constraints scheme (ANC) and 8,990 have applied for the Eco-Scheme," the spokesperson added.

DAFM said that similar to previous years it is planned to run a number of BISS in-person clinics this year to help farmers in making online applications for BISS and other area-based farm schemes.

"The details of these clinics are currently being finalised and once finalised, they will be advertised through the normal channels," the spokesperson said.

Should a farmer wish to contact the department in relation to their online application they can do by calling:

049 4368288 in relation to queries on registering for Agfood.ie – for example queries on lost passwords, how to register;
057 8674422 in relation to queries on completing the BISS application once registered on www.agfood.ie or to request a paper copy of the terms and conditions.