Almost £600,000 is expected to be paid to external consultants as part of the first two tranches of the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS).

The higher level of EFS is predominantly for land in environmentally designated areas, and requires third-party planners to survey land and design site-specific remedial management plans (ssRMP) which form the basis of scheme agreements.

In the first tranche of EFS, £237,544 was paid by DAERA to cover planners’ fees and the Department estimates that a further £362,000 will be paid under the second tranche. With around 575 agreements currently live across both tranches, this represent a cost of over £1,000/agreement.

With many farmers taking issue with a lack of financial incentive in EFS, particularly in EFS wider level, the total sum paid to EFS higher-level planners raises further questions about the design of the £100m scheme

EFS planner fees currently equate to 3.0% of all EFS higher-level agreement values. This is the amount to be paid to farmers over the five-year lifetime of scheme agreements, and stands at £20.2m for the first two tranches.

However, with many farmers taking issue with a lack of financial incentive in EFS, particularly in EFS wider level, the total sum paid to EFS higher-level planners raises further questions about the design of the £100m scheme.

In the past, other agri-environment schemes that were funded by previous Rural Development Programmes, such as the NI Countryside Management Scheme (NICMS), did not require external planners to design scheme agreements.

There has also been a high drop-out rate among farmers in EFS higher level. In the first tranche, only 60% of applicants that were approved by DAERA eventually proceeded and began scheme agreements.

Qualifications

EFS planners are required to hold an environmental qualification, and a list of 28 planners who have undergone training offered by DAERA was published on the Department’s website for the second tranche of the scheme last year.

It is up to scheme applicants and their planners to agree a fee for the work. Farmers then pay the fee and DAERA reimburses them after their ssRMP has been approved. However, DAERA has limits for reimbursing fees and it is understood that both planners and farmers are made aware of these before fees are agreed.

A DAERA spokesperson said that as part of the first tranche of EFS higher level, six farm businesses have not been reimbursed for planner fees because they either did not submit a claim or supplied insufficient documentation.

New tranche

A third tranche of EFS higher level opened for online applications on Monday and will be available for four weeks. Around 450 farm businesses completed scheme agreements under NICMS last year and were not eligible for the first two tranches of EFS, but will be able to apply to EFS this time round.

A new tranche of EFS wider level, which is for all types of farmland in NI, is also expected to open later in the year.

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