Farming associations urge farmers to respond to mapping exercise

The Rural Payments Agency has revealed that 86,500 English farmers and growers have already received their Single Payment Scheme payment for 2009. This means that £1.31 billion has been paid out since the payment window opened on December 1 2009.

The leaders of the NFU, CLA and TFA said: "This is great news on payments from the RPA and much improved on previous years. However, we must not be complacent. In particular, farmers are being urged to review and respond to the Rural Land Register maps that have been issued to ensure that the land data is correct before it is transferred onto the 2010 claim form.

"We would urge all those that haven’t already done so to respond to the RPA to ensure there are no unnecessary delays in receiving payments in 2010."