Opening soon, the next round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund

Last week, Defra published more details on the upcoming round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) in England. This will be the second round of the scheme, with the original list of 120 items of eligible farming, horticultural and forestry equipment expanded to 201 eligible items. The information has been shared ahead of the scheme opening for applications, and enables potential applicants to plan ahead by reviewing the list of items and the grant contributions.

In a change from round one, the funded equipment has been split out into two groups- ‘productivity and slurry’ and ‘animal health and welfare.’ The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will run separate application portals for the two groups, with the ‘productivity and slurry’ round opening for submissions at the end of February, and the ‘animal health and welfare’ round opening in March.

Of the 201 items, there are 91 items in the ‘productivity and slurry group’ ,and 110 items in the ‘animal health and welfare’ group. The 87 new items include:

• 19 items to aid productivity
• 2 items to assist with better slurry management
• 66 items to support animal health and welfare

As with the previous round, individual items and overall applications are scored by the RPA before grant offers are made, following the closure of the submission window. Those that applied in the first round are eligible to submit again, however, in a change from the previous round, applicants can see how each item has been scored before submitting their proposal.

The minimum grant value per application has also been reduced to £1,000, and there is a maximum of £25,000 per group (so a £50,000 combined maximum for applications across both portals).

The early publication of the eligible items list is a welcome step which the CLA has been advocating for. It offers interested members more time to review the list and plan their application and we recommend that CLA members examine the list of equipment thoroughly to see if there are items your businesses could benefit from.

To find out more, there is a webinar at 2pm on 28 February hosted by Defra which will outline and summarise the latest round of the fund application process.