These competitive productivity grants are split into small grants (Farming Equipment and Technology Fund) and large grants (Farming Transformation Fund).
So far these schemes have been very popular and all have been oversubscribed, with farmers who have previously not engaged with these types of grants engaging for the first time. This has meant that lower scoring applications, or weaker projects, have not been taken forward by the RPA to either allow a claim or a full application.
The NFU continues to work closely with Defra and the RPA on the development of these schemes.
Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF)
Farming Equipment and Technology Fund items will help improve:
- farm productivity
- the environment
- animal health and welfare
- management of slurry
2023 offer:
Scheme information published
7 February 2023
Productivity and Slurry application window opened
21 February 2023
Productivity and Slurry application window closed
Midday 4 April 2023
Animal Health and Welfare application window opened
23 March 2023
Animal Health and Welfare application window closes
Midday 15 June 2023
What does it cover?
There are 2 themes to the grant, each with an online application portal and different timelines:
- Productivity and Slurry – 91 items
- Animal Health and Welfare – 112 items
You can apply to either theme or both, for items that best suit your business. The FETF 2023 grant offer is competitive, and therefore not everyone who applies will automatically get a grant.
The 2023 offer is open to farmers, contractors, and foresters in England. Grants for items on the Animal Health and Welfare list are available to farmers or contractors in the following sectors:
- beef cattle
- dairy cattle
- sheep
- pigs
- laying hens
- broilers
There were some livestock productivity items in the Productivity and Slurry list of eligible items - this list also has categories for items under horticulture, arable, slurry, resource management and general items.
The FETF 2023 grants are for a minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £25,000 per theme. This means the maximum grant you can receive for Productivity and Slurry items is £25,000 and the maximum grant you can receive for Animal Health and Welfare items is £25,000.
If you were successful in receiving funding in Round 1 you can still apply for up to £25,000 per theme. The minimum and maximum grant levels apply to 2023 only. In future, there may be a cap added for the total grant that can be claimed over more than one year.
The amount listed against each item in Annex 3 and Annex 4 of the RPA guidance is the actual grant amount we will pay you and is a contribution towards the total cost of the item. It is your responsibility to fund the remaining cost of an item. Items must be paid for in full before claiming your grant payment.
You can find more information on our Farming Equipment and Technology Fund page. This includes information for those that have been successful with their initial application. The decisions for the Productivity and Slurry theme were communicated via email on 22 and 23 May 2023.
Productivity and Slurry – your opportunity to share opinions and shape future rounds
Defra wants to make sure that the FETF Productivity and Slurry list is up to date, that it responds to feedback and includes the items farmers want.
Through two surveys, farmers, growers, foresters, contractors and equipment manufacturers or suppliers can suggest productivity or slurry management equipment and tell Defra which specifications they’d like them to update.
Defra is particularly keen to hear suggestions for new horticultural items of equipment that could be included in the list for the next round.
You can read more and find out how to take part at: GOV.UK | Help us to review productivity and slurry grant items.
The survey closes at midday on Monday 3 July.
Round 1:
Launched
16 November 2021
Application window closed
7 January 2022
What did it cover?
Round 1 was open to farmers, contractors, and foresters in England to choose from a pre-determined expanded list of 120 standard cost eligible items.
It included livestock items and resource efficiency items.
The grant contribution ranged from £2,000 to £25,000, with £50,000 limit over the lifetime of scheme.
What has happened since 7 January 2022?
The RPA scored the claims and decisions were notified to applicants from mid-February onwards.
Despite the NFU calling for an increase in budget, which did increase from £17m to £48.5m in February 2022, there were a number of farmers that were still unfortunately unsuccessful with their application.
Following acceptance of their grant funding agreement, successful applicants needed to submit their claims. Before claims could be submitted, eligible items had to have been purchased and paid for in full. A paperwork trail must also be in place.
Claims and grants have largely been paid out by the RPA. Due to the delays in receiving some equipment, the RPA agreed to offer extensions on a case-by-case basis to the claim until 31 October 2022, with a final extended deadline of 31 January 2023 for those with supply issues approved by the RPA.
Farming Transformation Fund – Slurry Infrastructure grant
Scheme information published
23 November 2022
Initial outline application period closed
31 January 2023
Decisions on initial outline applications
Decisions communicated by late March
Full application deadline for successful applicants
28 June 2024
What did it cover?
The Slurry Infrastructure grant helps dairy, beef, pig farmers in England invest in future-proofed slurry infrastructure and nutrient management systems with an aim to help reducing water and air pollution risk from slurry.
Watch again: Slurry Infrastructure Grant – what you need to know
These first-year grants were aimed at covered slurry store construction projects, to enable farmers to get to six months storage capacity based on existing livestock numbers (meaning the typical number of animals you kept on the farm over the last year).
Defra is grant-funding a range of storage types and situations which farmers can choose from a list which needs to meet regulatory and building standards. It will help replace, build new or expand existing slurry stores to provide six months' storage.
Grant-funded projects will need to maintain six months' storage capacity for all animals on the holding for the duration of the grant funding agreement, irrespective of future livestock numbers. This means you’ll need to make appropriate upgrades to your storage and slurry management if you increase your herd size in the future.
What has happened since 31 January 2023?
It is a competitive fund. The RPA will prioritise projects which have the greatest environmental benefit. If oversubscribed in the first round, RPA will prioritise projects in areas that need urgent action to:
- reduce nutrient pollution from agriculture
- restore natural habitats
What has happened since the end of March 2023?
Defra started contacting successful applicants via letter to inform them that they will now need to prepare a full application for Defra to consider. These include all eligible applicants from the priority areas outlined by Defra, as well as those with projects scoring highly in both water and air quality improvements.
For those who have been unsuccessful in this round or did not apply, Defra has announced plans for two further rounds in 2023 and 2024. The NFU is involved in the co-design process for these two rounds to ensure the scheme works for those unsuccessful from Round 1 as well as those that have not applied so far.
Successful applicants will now need to secure planning permission for their project as well as analysing their financial viability, if they have not already done so. The deadline for the full application, including these two elements, will be 28 June 2024.
Defra has also changed the way it manages the standard cost funding for these grants. If your total amount for the project is less than what was calculated initially, then Defra will maintain their matched funding of 50%, of the actual total cost.
You can find out more by visiting: Farming Transformation Fund – Slurry Infrastructure grant | NFUonline
Farming Transformation Fund (FTF) for water management grant: Rounds 1 and 2
Round 2
Initial outline application window opened
19 April 2023
Initial outline application window closes
23:59pm 12 July 2023
This round of the grant scheme is open to arable and horticultural businesses which are either already growing, or intending to grow, either irrigated food crops, ornamentals or forestry nurseries.
Applicants have until 12 July 2023 to submit an initial application, upon assessment by the RPA, those who are selected to progress will be required to submit a complete a full application by 31 October 2024. You must include abstraction licences and planning permission confirmation in your application for Round 2.
The grant can go toward capital items to improve on farm productivity by mitigating water loss and securing water for irrigation use. These can include:
- Modifying existing water application equipment to more efficient models (moving from rain guns to trickle or boom application).
- Securing water access with a reduced environmental impact (such as by reservoir construction, rainfall harvesting or winter abstraction rather than summer abstraction).
- Improving business resilience and prosperity (for example, using new irrigation systems and newly irrigated areas to increase productivity or introduce high value crops and/or moving away from fossil fuel powered equipment)
- Encouraging collaboration for water storage and irrigation of crops (for example supplying water to neighbouring farmers).
For a full list of available equipment, visit: GOV.UK | About the Water Management Grant Round 2
The grant range will be between £35,000 and £500,000 per applicant business and will cover up to 40% of the cost of eligible items.
You can find out more by visiting our guide to the Farming Transformation Fund – Water Management Grant page.
Round 1
Launched
16 November 2021
Initial outline application window closed
12 January 2022
Full applications deadline for successful applicants
- Tranche 1: 30 June 2022 for those that did not request an extension with planning and abstraction licences in place by 31 December 2022.
- Tranche 1: 30 September 2022 for those that did request an extension with planning and abstraction licences in place by 31 March 2023.
- Tranche 2: 30 November 2022 with planning and abstraction licences in place by 31 May 2023.
What did it cover?
The competitive FTF for water management grant offered grants to improve farm productivity through more efficient use of water for irrigation / secure water supplies for crop irrigation by the construction of on-farm reservoirs and related equipment.
Grant contribution range from £35,000 to £500,000 with a 40% intervention rate.
What has happened since 12 January 2022?
As a reminder, there was a two-stage application process with an online eligibility and desirability scoring checker that assessed initial applications. This closed in January 2022.
The RPA has since made three decisions on submitted initial applications:
- Strong scoring projects have been invited to progress with a full application.
- Some lower scoring projects were initially put on hold but have since been invited to put in a full application, as set out above in the form of Tranche 2.
- The weakest projects have been turned down.
After the deadlines set out above, the RPA will assess the full applications and decide on which will be offered grant funding. The decisions are said to be made within 60 days of this deadline.
Critical is the need to have planning permission/abstraction licences in place. If there are delays getting planning permission or abstraction licenses, speak to the RPA about whether an extension is possible.
The FTF effectively replaces the Countryside Productivity Large Grants Scheme (CPLG) for Water Resource Management that existed under the RDPE.
You can find out more by visiting our guide to the Farming Transformation Fund – Water Management Grant page.
Farming Transformation Fund Improving Farm Productivity grant
Scheme information published
Mid December 2021
Initial outline application window closed
16 March 2022
Full application deadline for successful applicants
14 September 2022.
The RPA allowed a second tranche of Improving Farm Productivity large projects to progress to full application stage. The deadline for these applicants to submit their full application was 31 January 2023.
What did it cover?
The competitive Improving Farm Productivity grant was to improve farm productivity through robotic (for example automated weeding / voluntary milking systems / feeding systems) or automation (for example advanced ventilation systems) and also mild slurry acidification treatment support.
Grant contributions range from £35,000 to £500,000 with a 40% intervention rate.
What has happened since 16 March 2022?
As a reminder, there was a two-stage application process with an online eligibility and desirability scoring checker that assessed initial applications. This closed in mid-March 2022.
The RPA has assessed the initial applications received and made the following decisions:
- the strongest scoring projects have been invited to progress with a full application in two tranches as set out above.
- the weakest projects will be turned down.
Now that we are past the deadlines, the RPA is assessing the full applications and deciding on which will be offered grant funding. The decisions are said to be made within 60 days of this deadline.
Critically, planning permission needed to be in place by 31 December 2022 for the first tranche, and by 31 May 2023 for the second tranche.
Find out more by visiting our Farming Transformation Fund Improving Farm Productivity page.
Farming Transformation Fund Adding Value grant
Scheme information published
24 May 2022
Initial outline application closed
21 July 2022
Full application deadline for successful applicants
31 January 2024
What did it cover?
The Adding Value grant scheme was set up to award capital grants of between £25,000 and £300,000 to farmers and growers to support their work processing, diversifying, and adding value to their agricultural and horticultural products.
It is a competitive fund. The RPA will award funding to the strongest applications.
You can find out more by visiting our Farming Transformation Fund – Adding Value grant page.
What has happened since 21 July 2022?
As a reminder, there was a two-stage application process with an online eligibility and desirability scoring checker that assessed initial applications. This closed on 21 July 2022.
The RPA has assessed the initial applications received. At this point we expect that:
- the strongest scoring projects will have been invited to progress with a full application
- lower scoring projects may be put on hold in case funds become available later if projects initially asked to progress drop out of the process
- the weakest projects will be turned down.
On 17 August 2022, the RPA announced that applicants who have been invited to submit a full application for this grant could now go ahead with their submission. If you have been invited to submit a full application, the deadline for submitting your full application form and supporting evidence is 11.59pm on 31 January 2024.
The RPA will assess the full applications and decide which will be offered grant funding as they are received. The decisions are said to be made within 60 days of this deadline.
The RPA cannot assess full applications or commit funds to projects that are waiting on planning permission to proceed. In this instance, you will need to send a copy of the planning permission approval together with your full application submission.
You can find out more by visiting our Farming Transformation Fund – Adding Value grant page.
What else is in the pipeline?
Animal Health and Welfare Pathway Capital grants
Defra is working with the industry on a time-limited set of financial incentives including specific large grants. More details and their relationship with the Farming Investment Fund are expected in the coming months.
NFU comment
Speaking at the launch of these schemes in November 2021, NFU Deputy President Tom Bradshaw said: “The launch of the first productivity schemes is good news for farmers and will play a vital role in helping them invest in their businesses, boost productivity and prepare for the future."
“With more items being made available and the maximum value increasing to £25,000 for the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, the government has clearly recognised the benefits of investing in efficient food production.
“It’s great to see funding being made available under the Farming Transformation Fund for enabling water storage on farm, which is becoming increasingly important as we experience more frequent events of drought and flooding due to global warming.
“It’s vital that farmers make their applications as quickly as possible and, if accepted, give themselves as much time as possible to make the necessary arrangements.”
“However, the application windows for both schemes are tight. The current disruption to supply chains, as well as the difficulty getting planning permission for building reservoirs, could lead to delays.
“It’s vital that farmers make their applications as quickly as possible and, if accepted, give themselves as much time as possible to make the necessary arrangements.”
