NI grants for farm machinery to focus on reducing costs
© Tim Scrivener A pot of £10m has been allocated to help farmers in Northern Ireland buy machinery and new equipment that will help reduce the effect of rising input costs.
The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) has announced that tier 1 of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme – Capital will open for applications on 27 September.
The scheme supports the purchase of equipment and machinery, costing from £5,000 to £30,000, from a list of eligible items.
See also: Read more from Farmers Weekly on grants
The grant covers 40% of the eligible costs of each item and forms the fourth tranche of funding that has been made available under this scheme. Previous rounds have seen 4,000 farmers given support totalling more than £26m.
Daera said this time any applications that include equipment with the potential to help address increased costs for feed, fuel and fertiliser will be scored more highly.
The kit that will have an increased item score compared with those in previous tranches fall under the following categories:
- Precision farming
- Grassland management
- Energy efficiency
- Silage quality
- Feed efficiency
- Sward renovation/reseeding
- Reduced feed costs.
Applications close at 4pm on 11 November 2022.