A new scheme is being developed to help support young farmers in NI, a committee of MLAs has been told.

Speaking at Stormont last Thursday, Mark Scott from CAFRE said there will be three strands to the new “Farming for the Generations” scheme.

The first element is a land mobility initiative where arrangements like long-term leasing and profit-sharing can be developed between older farmers and new entrants.

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The second strand, known as “the succession pathway”, was described by Scott as “the core and mandatory element of the scheme”.

He said it will give farm businesses access to mentoring, training, workshops and professional legal advice.

“The aim here is to help families make informed decisions about the future of the farm and to provide practical assistance to put those decisions into effect,” he said.

The third strand involves financial support for farm businesses that have a successor coming forward.

“It is targeted at businesses where the successor is aged between 18 and 40, is formally involved in the farm business and is progressing towards an active role in management,” Scott said.

The CAFRE official said participants will need to reach “annual milestones” to receive payments over a four-year period, such as completing various training courses. With a scheme budget still to be agreed, proposed payment rates for participants were not discussed at last week’s briefing.

However, Scott indicated that it would differ from the former Young Farmers’ Payment, which was open for applications in NI from 2015 to 2025.

Under that scheme, participants received an annual Basic Payment Scheme top-up, that was worth up to £77/ha.

Instead, Scott said Farming for the Generations payments would not be based around entitlements or the area farmed, so the scheme will be “scale neutral”.

“A small farm will have the same cost associated with bringing in a successor as a large farm. If you link to any payment entitlements, then that’s a disproportionate advantage to larger farms,” he said.

Regional reserve

During the meeting, several MLAs pressed for a regional reserve style scheme so young farmers can access free entitlements.

However, DAERA officials appeared reluctant and pointed out that Farming for the Generations will offer direct financial support to participants.

“It will be a business decision about how that money is used, be it to invest in new equipment within the business, buy new entitlements or lease entitlements for a period of time,” said George Moffett from DAERA.