FARMERS in Worcestershire face severe reductions in subsidy payments if they miss Monday's deadline for Single Payment Scheme applications.

Anyone who does not get their application form to the Rural Payments Agency at Whittington Road, Worcester, by Monday, May 16, will lose four per cent of their entitlement every working day up to Friday, June 10.

After that date they will miss out completely and will not receive any payments for the entire period of the scheme, which runs until 2012.

But only 30 per cent of the expected applications have been received so far.

RPA chief executive Johnston McNeill said: "This really is the last call for applicants and we urge anyone planning to submit an application to do so as soon as possible."

He stressed that farmers should make sure they had completed and signed all relevant sections of the application form and initialled and dated any corrections.

The introduction of the Single Payment Scheme, which replaced most previous crop and livestock schemes from January 1, 2005, is the biggest change in agriculture for 30 years.

Farmers used to be paid according to production levels, but under the new system they are free to produce what the market wants.

Part of the SPS is linked to the farmer's subsidy record, with the proportion of flat rate funds rising each year from 10 per cent in 2005 to 100 per cent in 2012.

Information about the number of animals and areas of land that would be used to calculate the historic element of the Single Payment were issued to producers last year.

Plant sale

A CHARITY plant sale will take place at the Church of St Martin and St Peter in London Road, Worcester, on Saturday between 10 am and noon to raise money for missionary projects.