The first letters of offer under the Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme (SFIS) are due to start issuing from today (Thursday), although, it looks like fewer than half of the applicants for 40% grants will be successful in the first round of funding.

In a statement released on Wednesday, Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir said he was “encouraged” by the level of interest in the scheme and indicated that £15m will be made available in the first round. Overall, the scheme is expected to provide £40m of grant support to farmers “over the next three to four years”.

However, an analysis of SFIS data suggests that if all applications made this year were successful, the total £40m pot would be used in one go.

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Figures released by DAERA in response to a Freedom of Information request show there were 4,253 applications submitted by the 3 September closing date, of which 521 were for low emission slurry spreading equipment (LESSE) and 3,732 were for non-LESSE items.

The average amount of grant sought in each LESSE application was £11,410 and for each non-LESSE application it stood at £9,618.

Top 10

As part of the response, the department also listed out the top 10 non-LESSE items applied for by farmers.

Top of the list was ammonia reduction slat rubber mats for cattle housing, followed by automated calf feeders, calving gates, heat detection systems and diet feeders.

Also on the list were plastic slats for sheep or calves, robotic scrapers, weigh platforms for cattle and grass tedders.

To help determine which farmers receive letters of offer, each item was allocated a points score based on various health, welfare and environmental objectives. Among the 3,963 farm businesses which applied for the first round, 57% are cattle and sheep farms, while 29% listed dairy as their main enterprise type. Some of these farms applied for both LESSE and non-LESSE and these are now effectively being treated as two separate applications.

Accept

Successful applicants will have 28 days to accept their letter of offer, which can be accessed online via the SFIS portal.

These applicants will be notified about the letter by a secure message sent on the DAERA customer portal.

According to Minister Muir, SFIS is critical to helping deliver an environmentally sustainable farming sector.

“The high level of demand is indicative of the investment required and it is important that funding is secured going forward to allocate to as many farm businesses as possible,” he said.