Applications for the farming equipment and technology fund 2024 now open

At the recent National Farmers Union annual conference in Birmingham, Rishi Sunak announced the ‘largest ever grant offer for farmers in the coming financial year’. The grant is expected to total £427m and include a package of funding for technology and productivity schemes. Presumably, the package includes the next round of the farming equipment and technology fund (FETF).

Overview of the farming equipment and technology fund

The fund provides grants for equipment and technology that support improvements in:

productivity
slurry management
animal health and welfare.

Extracts from the guidance as follows:

	Productivity	Slurry Management	Animal health and welfare
Grant size	£1,000 to £50,000	£1,000 to £50,000	£1,000 to £25,000
Grant intervention rate	50% to 60%	50% to 60%	50% to 60%
Applications scored on	· productivity benefit · environmental benefit · level of adoption by the industry	· improving slurry management · environmental benefit · level of adoption by the industry	contribution towards the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway priorities. (This year, you can increase your application score by 20% if you can show evidence that you’ve discussed your application with a vet.)
List of items you apply for	Productivity items and specifications	Slurry items and specifications	Animal health and welfare items and specifications
Eligibility – business location	based and registered in England
Eligibility – type of business	· farmer · horticulturalist · forestry owner ·�� contractor carrying out services to farmers, horticulturalists or forestry owner		Farm any of the following: · beef cattle · dairy cattle · sheep · pigs · laying chickens (including rearing and breeding farms) · broiler chickens (including rearing and breeding farms)

Other key features of the farming equipment and technology fund

This year there will be multiple application windows
Funding for each of the three grants will be allocated starting with the highest scoring applications until it is fully allocated. This will set the minimum threshold for the application window
Grant intervention will be a % of the lower of actual cost or average cost of listed item.

Application process

The application process is set out in the ‘how to apply’ section of the guidance which includes actions you can take now in advance of the application window opening.

Next steps

I expect this scheme will be extremely popular, notwithstanding the fact that an applicant will need to cash flow the total expenditure (claims for grant are in arrears). If you are an eligible business and considering expenditure equipment and technology that support improvements in productivity and/ or slurry management and/or animal health and welfare, I would suggest you have a read through the guidance and look to see if specific items you want to acquire are on the list.

Also:

You should subscribe to the Farming blog to receive a reminder on the day the scheme opens to applications;
Defra are hosting a webinar on 12 March 2024. Register to attend the webinar here.

How can we help?

If you would like to talk through any aspects of a project, including match funding, then please do not hesitate to contact me or your usual point of contact at PKF Francis Clark.