I am pleased to say you can now apply for a productivity and slurry management grant through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2024.
Last month, I blogged about the FETF and improvements we've made. I also included a link to the official FETF 2024 guidance. We recently made an update to it, so please note that the online guidance on GOV.UK is the very latest guidance.
In this post, I’ll set out the process to apply and how you can learn more.
The FETF provides grants for farming equipment and technology that supports improvements in productivity, slurry management and animal health and welfare.
Grants for productivity and slurry management items are available now. The deadline to apply is midday 17 April 2024.
Grants for animal health and welfare items will be available later this month.
Farmers, foresters, growers and contractors to those sectors can apply.
You can apply for one grant from each of the 3 themes. The fund is competitive.
Successful applicants will receive a grant of:
We will pay a percentage of the cost depending on the item. For many items, this percentage is an increase on last year. This funding will go towards either:
You’ll receive an acknowledgement email within 24 hours of applying – you may need to check your junk folder for emails about your application.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will allocate funding once all the applications have been received and scored. You may not receive any, or all of the funding you apply for.
If your application is successful, the RPA will send you a Grant Funding Agreement (GFA). GFAs for each grant will be sent separately. If your application is unsuccessful, the RPA will write to you to tell you why.
Use the Farming Investment Fund servic e to accept your GFA by the deadline which will be in the email. You’ll need to select each grant to accept each GFA.
We've set out the steps you’ll need to follow to claim your FETF 2024 grant payment on GOV.UK .
We expect to open 2 more productivity and slurry application windows later this year.
The first application window for animal health and welfare items will open later this month, we will post again when it is time to apply.
The item specifications and their costs are the same in each application window. The total overall budget for each grant is split evenly across the application windows.
If your application falls below the scoring threshold and is unsuccessful, the RPA will reject it. You will be able to apply again in a different window.
If you've accepted a grant funding agreement (GFA) to buy items from a grant, you cannot apply again for the same grant in 2024.
Our team hosted a webinar covering the grants available on 12 March 2024.
Applications for the animal health and welfare grants will open soon. Subscribe to the blog to receive a reminder on the day.