New round of the Farming Equipment and Technology fund grants to open soon

It was announced last week that a new round of Farming Equipment and Technology Fund grants will be opening soon following a successful first round.

Here are the basics of the scheme and links to more information:

The basics of The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund

Who can apply?	Farmers, foresters and growers in England, including contractors to these sectors
Grant size	Grants between £1,000 and £25,000
Eligible expenditure	Grants go towards the cost of specific items from a prescribed list
When does scheme open	The scheme is split into two themes: Productivity and Slurry (open later this month) Animal Health and Welfare (available in March)
What’s on the prescribed list this time	Defra have published detailed guidance on GOV.UK including lists of items which can be found for both grants. They can be found here. To summarise: Productivity and Slurry – The items in this list improve agricultural sustainability and horticultural and forestry productivity, helping farmers use less inputs, reduce emissions and cut waste Animal Health and Welfare – The items in this list offer improvements in the health and welfare of livestock, potentially helping farmers improve biosecurity or decrease environmental stress Each item has a score assigned to it based on Defra’s assessment of how well it meets the objectives of the scheme. If the scheme is oversubscribed, Defra will allocate funding to those items with the highest score first.

How to apply?

There are two separate portals where you can apply for each grant: one for Productivity and Slurry the other for Animal Health and Welfare. This blog post will be updated as soon as there are more details, but in essence:

When applications open, visit the online portal and answer questions for the types of grants you are applying for
There is a minimum grant of £1,000 per portal
If your application is successful, you can then buy the item. You will be able to claim the reimbursement using your receipt

Next steps

Take a look at the scheme guidance and peruse the prescribed lists. If there are items you require then you can then apply as soon as the scheme opens
The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund is part of the Farming Investment Fund and you can sign up to updates here.

Get in touch

It is very welcome that the next round of these grants is now once again open. Previous rounds have had very good take up and the process of applying is straightforward and should not put applicants off.

I recommend all farmers look through the prescribed list and if there is anything your business really needs, I would encourage you to apply. That said please don’t forget that the non-grant element still has to be funded, if the asset is not really needed then the funds could probably be better spent elsewhere.

If you have any questions please contact your usual PKF Francis Clark contact or a member of the rural team.