Federal Act
on Agriculture
(Agriculture Act, AgricA)

¹ Dir­ect pay­ments are made on con­di­tion that:

a.

the busi­ness is run as a farm;

b.

proof of eco­lo­gic­al per­form­ance can be provided;

c.

ag­ri­cul­tur­al pro­duc­tion meth­ods com­ply with the pro­vi­sions of le­gis­la­tion on the pro­tec­tion of wa­ters, the en­vir­on­ment and an­im­al wel­fare;

d.

the land farmed does not lie with­in a des­ig­nated build­ing zone that has been leg­ally ex­cluded un­der plan­ning le­gis­la­tion after this pro­vi­sion comes in­to force;

e.

a min­im­um amount of la­bour on the farm in stand­ard la­bour units is reached;

f.

a min­im­um amount of work is car­ried out by la­bour­ers em­ployed by the farm;

g.

the farm­er is not over a cer­tain age;

h.

the farm­er has a qual­i­fic­a­tion in ag­ri­cul­ture.

² Proof of eco­lo­gic­al per­form­ance in­cludes:

a.

ap­pro­pri­ate con­di­tions for live­stock;

b.

bal­anced use of fer­til­isers;

c.

an ad­equate pro­por­tion of land set aside for biod­iversity;

d.

reg­u­la­tion use of ob­jects in­cluded in in­vent­or­ies of na­tion­al in­terest un­der the terms of the Fed­er­al Act of 1 Ju­ly 1966¹⁰⁷ on Nature and Cul­tur­al Her­it­age;

e.

reg­u­lar crop ro­ta­tion;

f.

ap­pro­pri­ate soil pro­tec­tion;

g.

spe­cif­ic choice and ap­plic­a­tion of plant pro­tec­tion products.

³ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil:

a.

shall set out the terms for proof of eco­lo­gic­al per­form­ance;

b.

shall set out the terms for val­ues and re­quire­ments in re­la­tion to para­graph 1 let­ters a and e–h;

c.

may lim­it the amount of dir­ect pay­ments per stand­ard la­bour unit;

d.

may al­low ex­cep­tions to let­ter c and para­graph 1 let­ter h;

e.

may al­low ex­cep­tions to para­graph 1 let­ter a for dir­ect pay­ments for biod­iversity and land­scape qual­ity;

f.

shall set the limits in relation to the area per farm above which payments are graduated or reduced.

⁴ The Fed­er­al Coun­cil may stip­u­late fur­ther re­quire­ments and ob­lig­a­tions re­gard­ing dir­ect pay­ments.

⁵ It shall de­cide on the areas for which dir­ect pay­ments are made.