On 18 September 2019, the Diário da República published Ordinance No. 318/2019 of 18 September, which came into force on 19 September 2019 and is effective as of 1 January 2019.

 Given the state of emergency due to severe and extreme drought in mainland Portugal, the European Commission has authorized the country to apply temporary and exceptional derogations to enable farmers to use fallow plots, in particular for feeding animal through grazing, without adversely affecting the payment of climate-friendly farming practices (Greening).

 Fallow subplots, either yielding crops or used for pasture between 1 February 2019 and 31 July 2019, are taken into account for the purposes of complying with crop diversification practices and are considered areas of ecological interest.

 This exceptional and temporary scheme applies only to fallow plots declared in the 2019 Single Application that are located in the municipalities covered by the severe or extreme drought situation in 2019. These municipalities (referred to in the Annex to the Ordinance) are generally part of the districts of Beja, Castelo Branco, Évora, Faro, Lisbon, Portalegre, Santarém and Setúbal.