A new capital grant scheme for NI farmers will be launched in early 2026, a committee of MLAs has been told.

The original aim within DAERA was to launch the £40m Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme by the end of 2025.

However, at Stormont last week, Joy Alexander from DAERA said the new grant scheme remains subject to approval from the Department of Finance.

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“We are still in the process of getting business case approval and we have we have put bids in for funding, so the process is underway,” she said.

Brenda Cunning from DAERA said farms will be able to claim a maximum grant of £25,000 to provide up to 40% funding for equipment and technology that has an environmental benefit.

Eligible items

“The scheme will be based on a list of preselected eligible items which the department has assessed and scored. Grants will be available based on reference prices,” she said.

“We have been very careful with how we have scored items to make sure there are items across the board for all sectors,” Cunning added.

It is proposed that the minimum spend for a grant application is lowered from £5,000 in the previous Tier 1 grant scheme to £3,000 in the new scheme.

Similar to the Tier 1 grant, if the scheme is over-subscribed, applications will be assessed based on the priority score of each item.

“They will be ranked, then we will have to draw a cut-off point,” Cunning said.

MLAs were also told that there are plans within DAERA to roll out a separate scheme to provide grant support for larger farm investments.

“A separate phase two scheme will be developed through engagement with industry and learning from ongoing initiatives and research to support larger transformative investments including emerging technologies,” said Joy Alexander from DAERA.