agricultural activity — production, rearing or growing of agricultural products, including harvesting, milking, breeding animals, and keeping animals for farming purposes, maintaining an agricultural area in a state which makes it suitable for grazing or cultivation without preparatory action going beyond usual agricultural methods and machineries, based on criteria established by Member States on the basis of a framework established by the Commission, or carrying out a minimum activity, defined by Member States, on agricultural areas naturally kept in a state suitable for grazing or cultivation (c)

agricultural area — any area taken up by arable land, permanent grassland and permanent pasture, or permanent crops (e)

agricultural products — the products, with the exception of fishery products, listed in Annex I to the Treaties as well as cotton (d)

approved interbranch organisation — a legal entity made up of farmers producing cotton and at least one ginner, carrying out activities such as: helping to better coordinate the way cotton is placed on the market, particularly through research studies and market surveys; drawing up standard forms of contract compatible with Union rules; orienting production towards products that are better adapted to market needs and consumer demand, particularly in terms of quality and consumer protection; updating methods and means to improve product quality; developing marketing strategies to promote cotton via quality certification schemes 1.

arable land — land cultivated for crop production or areas available for crop production but lying fallow, including areas set aside in accordance with Articles 22, 23 and 24 of Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999, with Article 39 of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 and with Article 28 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013, irrespective of whether or not that land is under greenhouses or under fixed or mobile cover (f)

areas of permanent grassland — the land under permanent pasture declared in 2012, or 2013 in the case of Croatia, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 73/2009 by the farmers subject to the obligations under this Chapter, as well as the areas of permanent grassland declared in 2015 in accordance with point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 72(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 by the farmers subject to the obligations under this Chapter that have not been declared as land under permanent pasture in 2012 or, in the case of Croatia, 2013 (a)

crop — any of the following: a culture of any of the different genera defined in the botanical classification of crops; a culture of any of the species in the case of Brassicaceae, Solanaceae, and Cucurbitaceae; land lying fallow; grasses or other herbaceous forage. Winter crop and spring crop shall be considered to be distinct crops even if they belong to the same genus 4.

eligible hectare — any agricultural area of the holding, including areas that were not in good agricultural condition on 30 June 2003 in Member States acceding to the Union on 1 May 2004 that opted upon accession to apply the single area payment scheme, that is used for an agricultural activity or, where the area is also used for non-agricultural activities, is predominantly used for agricultural activities; or any area which gave a right to payments in 2008 under the single payment scheme or the single area payment scheme laid down, respectively, in Titles III and IVA of Regulation (EC) No 1782/2003, and which: no longer complies with the definition of 'eligible hectare' under point (a) as a result of the implementation of Directive 92/43/EEC, Directive 2000/60/EC and Directive 2009/147/EC; for the duration of the relevant commitment by the individual farmer, is afforested pursuant to Article 31 of Regulation (EC) No 1257/1999 or to Article 43 of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 or to Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013 or under a national scheme the conditions of which comply with Article 43(1), (2) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 1698/2005 or Article 22 of Regulation (EU) No 1305/2013; or for… 2.

farmer — a natural or legal person, or a group of natural or legal persons, regardless of the legal status granted to such group and its members by national law, whose holding is situated within the territorial scope of the Treaties, as defined in Article 52 TEU in conjunction with Articles 349 and 355 TFEU, and who exercises an agricultural activity (a)

farmers commencing their agricultural activity — natural or legal persons who, in the five years preceding the start of the agricultural activity, did not have any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk or did not have the control of a legal person exercising an agricultural activity. In the case of a legal person, the natural person or persons in control of the legal person must not have had any agricultural activity in their own name and at their own risk or must not have had the control of a legal person exercising an agricultural activity in the five years preceding the start of the agricultural activity by the legal person; Member States may establish their own additional objective and non-discriminative eligibility criteria for this category of farmers as regards appropriate skills, experience or education (b)

grasses or other herbaceous forage — all herbaceous plants traditionally found in natural pastures or normally included in mixtures of seeds for pastures or meadows in the Member State, whether or not used for grazing animals (i)

holding — all the units used for agricultural activities and managed by a farmer situated within the territory of the same Member State (b)

lease — a rental agreement or similar temporary transaction (m)

nurseries — the following areas of young ligneous (woody) plants grown in the open air for subsequent transplantation: vine and root-stock nurseries, fruit tree and berries nurseries, ornamental nurseries, commercial nurseries of forest trees excluding those for the holding's own requirements grown within woodland, nurseries of trees and bushes for planting in gardens, parks, at the roadside and on embankments (e.g. hedgerow plants, rose trees and other ornamental bushes, ornamental conifers), including in all cases their stocks and young seedlings (j)

permanent crops — non-rotational crops other than permanent grassland and permanent pasture that occupy the land for five years or more and yield repeated harvests, including nurseries and short rotation coppice (g)

sale — the sale or any other definitive transfer of ownership of land or payment entitlements; it does not include the sale of land where land is transferred to public authorities or for use in the public interest and where the transfer is carried out for non-agricultural purposes (l)

short rotation coppice — areas planted with tree species of CN code 06029041 to be defined by Member States that consist of woody, perennial crops, the rootstock or stools of which remain in the ground after harvesting, with new shoots emerging in the following season and with a maximum harvest cycle to be determined by the Member States (k)

total agricultural area — the agricultural area declared in 2015 in accordance with point (a) of the first subparagraph of Article 72(1) of Regulation (EU) No 1306/2013 by farmers subject to the obligations under this Chapter (b)

transfer — the lease or sale or actual inheritance or anticipated inheritance of land or payment entitlements or any other definitive transfer thereof; it does not cover the reversion of entitlements upon expiry of a lease (n)

young farmers — farmers fulfilling the conditions laid down in Article 50(2) and, where relevant, the conditions referred to in Article 50(3) and (11) (a)