Farm Grants & Government Schemes
Funding For Farmers, Growers And Managers
Apply for grants and other funding to increase productivity, manage your land to benefit the environment and support your agricultural business.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme pays farmers and land managers to take up or maintain sustainable farming and land management practices that:
- Protect and benefit the environment
- Support food production
- Improve productivity
These practices are referred to as “SFI Actions”
You can apply for up to 102 SFI actions in the expanded SFI offer for 2024
You can apply for Countryside Stewardship to get paid to:
- Increase biodiversity
- Improve habitat
- Improve air quality
- Improve natural flood management
Landscape Recovery pays groups of farmers and land managers to do long-term, large-scale projects together. Land must be in England and consists of at least 500 connected hectares. The scheme supports:
- Net zero carbon emissions
- Protected sites
- Wildlife-rich habitats
Please note: advance planning for these schemes is vital as the timeframe for applications are very tight. Application windows are opened periodically throughout the year.
Grants to help you buy items to
- Improve productivity
- Manage slurry
- Improve animal health and welfare
Open: 6 March 2024 for productivity and slurry grants for farmers and 20 March 2024 for animal health and welfare grant.
Grant Value: up to £50,000 towards productivity and slutty items and up to £25,000 towards animal health and welfare items.
Closing Date: midday on 17 April 2024 for productivity and slurry farm grants and 1 May 2024 for animal health and welfare grants.
Grant value: £35,000 to £500,000
If you have been invited to make a full application, you have until 31 October 2024 to submit your documents.
Round 1 of the Water Management grant is now closed.
Grant value: £25,000 to £250,000
If you have been invited to make a full application you have until 30 September 2024 to submit your slurry store location and design assessment form.
Grant value: £25,000 to £300,000
Grant Value:
£25,000 to £500,000 for robotic/auto equipment
£15,000 to £100,000 for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems
You can apply for farming grants to improve water and air quality through Countryside Stewarwship (CS). You can choose grants suitable to your land.
Grant value: amounts vary depending on your CS agreement
Closing date: some farm grants are open all year, others are time-limited.
A grant to fund projects that restore, improve and prevent further deterioration of:
- Rivers and their headwaters (inc. chalk streams)
- Canals
- Lakes
- Ponds
- Wetland – freshwater and saltwater
- Estuarine waters
You can apply for 2 types of awards for projects starting from July 2024
Short term farming grants to build capability and help you design and plan future projects. The project length should be 6 – 12 months.
Medium to long-term grants to help you carry our projects you’ve already planned. Project length should be 12 – 30 months and your project should begin as soon as possible after receiving a grant funding agreement.
Grant value: Development awards £75,000 to £250,000
Delivery awards £500,000 to £2 million
Closing Date: Friday 7 June 2024
You can apply for grants to reduce flood risk through CS.
Grant Value: amounts vary depending on your CS agreement
Closing Date: some farming grants are open all year, others are time-limited.
Wildlife offer are part of the CS Mid Tier
- Improve nectar sources for insect pollinators and foraging birds
- Provide additional winter food sources for seed-eating birds
- Improve habitats fand other resources for specific species or areas
There are CS wildlife packages for
- Arable land
- Lowland grazing
- Mixed farming
- Uplands
When SFI opens, you can choose SFI management actions for:
- Hedgerows
- Buffer strips
- Farmland wildlife on arable and horticultural land and improved grassland
Grants value: £250,000 to £3 million for 2 year projects
Open: apply at any time of year.
Grant value: amounts vary depending on your project.
Closing date: projects must end by March 2025.
Through the Farming in Protected Landscapes (FiPL) programme, you can apply for funding if you’re a farmer or land manager within an area of outstanding natural beauty or national park in England. You must be planning projects that:
- support nature recovery
- mitigate the impacts of climate change
- provide opportunities for people to discover nature
- protect or improve the quality and character of the landscape
Open: apply at any time of year.
Grant value: £372 to £684 per vet review depending on livestock type.
Farmers who keep cattle, sheep or pigs can get funding for a vet to visit their farm and carry out an annual health and welfare review.
You can apply for up to £25,000 towards animal health and welfare items as part of the FETF 2024.
The England Woodland Creation Grant provides funding to create new woodland on areas that are at least 1 hectare.
Open: all year round
Grant value: up to £10,200 per hectare with an additional £12,700 per hectare if the woodland delivers wider benefits to society, nature recovery and the environment
Closing date: 1 January 2025
If your land is located within the catchment area of one of our local Woodland Creation Partners, you could apply for a regional woodland creation or tree planting grant that can be tailored to your circumstances.
Catchment areas are as follows:
- Forest for Cornwall – across Cornwall
- England’s Community Forests – 13 local Community Forests across the country
- The Northerh Forest – in parts of Lancashire, Merseyside, Yorkshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Lincolnshire
- The National Forest – right in the heart of the country, covering 200 square miles of the Midlands
- Great Northumberland Forest – across Northumberland
CS offers grants for 10 year woodland management planning.
Grant value: depends on the area of eligible woodland.
The Woodland Creation Planning Grant (WCPG) provides funding to prepare a Woodland Creation Design Plan that complies with the UK Forestry Standard.
Open: all year round.
Grant value: maximum £30,500 per project.You can use this plan to support further woodland creation grant applications, such as EWCO.
Tree Health Pilot Scheme – You can apply to test different ways of slowing the spread of pests and diseases affecting trees in England. Grants are available for:
- ash with ash dieback
- diseased larch, spruce and sweet chestnut
- oak with oak processionary moth
- restocking trees
Open: all year round.
Grant value:
– up to 80% of felling costs per m3
– up to 40% of infrastructure costs
CS Woodland Tree Health grant pays you to restock or improve woodland after tree health problems. There are 19 capital items available under CS to choose from.
Open: all year round.
Grant value: varies depending on the capital items chosen as part of your CS grant agreement.
Opens: 11 December 2023.
Grant value: up to £100,000 from a £5 million fund.
Closing date: now closed.
The Natural Environment Investment Readiness Fund (NEIRF) offers farming grants to help farmers attract private investment in nature projects, such as selling carbon units through peatland restoration.
You can apply for grants through the Farming Innovation Programme (FIP) to:
- improve agricultural and horticultural productivity, sustainability and resilience.
- reduce the environmental impact of agriculture and horticulture.
- use science and research to develop solutions for practical challenges in agriculture and horticulture.
More information is available on the FIP website.
Our farming grants consultants, based in Devon, are knowledgeable on all aspects of the newest farm grants and government funding schemes available to farming and agricultural businesses across the country. As well as businesses in Devon and Somerset, we have extensive experience of providing advice and guidance to a wide variety of rural industries in the UK and abroad.
These new farm grants and schemes, including the Countryside Stewardship Scheme, are designed to support farms in adopting regenerative practices that help restore the environment, as well as reducing expenditure.
We can take you step by step through application processes according to what you need.
See below for more information on how your business can benefit from these grants for farmers.
Looking for expert consultancy when it comes to applying for any specific grants for farmers, growers or managers? Our teams will provide you with expert advice and take you through step by step application processes, ensuring you’re putting your best foot forward when it comes to applying for any farm grants.
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- ajs@esusagri.co.uk.
- ESUS Agri Ltd East Knowstone South Molton EX36 4DZ United Kingdom