Eligible items for 40% grant funding under the second tranche of the Farm Business Improvement Scheme (FBIS) Tier 1 element were released by DAERA on Tuesday.
There are 193 eligible items in total, up from 160 items in the first tranche of the scheme last year. Tier 1 is for investments costing between £5,000 and £30,000 and can be made up of several items from the list.
Farmers are only allowed to claim £12,000 of grant funding from Tier 1 across all tranches.
DAERA has said that if a successful applicant in the first tranche applies again in the second tranche and the total grant funding across both tranches is over £12,000, the second tranche application will be rejected.
Eligible items are divided into four categories:
Applications for the second tranche of Tier 1 will open on 4 January 2018 and will close at 4pm on 2 February 2018. Countryside Services will again administer the scheme on behalf of DAERA.
Assessment of applications is based on selection criteria marks. A minimum of 40 marks are required and DAERA has said applications will be ranked if the second tranche is oversubscribed.
Marks
Each item is listed with a reference price and a band number from one to three which represents how the item meets the themes of the scheme (28 to 40 marks).
Up to 39 marks are also available for “value for money” where the application costs up to 20% less than the reference price, with 1.95 marks awarded for each 1% of grant sought below the maximum grant allowed for an item.
Marks are also available for online applications (11 marks), farmers under the age of 40 (5 marks) and farmers with at least a level two qualification (5 marks).
Further coverage of the second tranche of the scheme will feature in this week’s NI edition of the Irish Farmers Journal and online.