Gov.uk: Environment Secretary opens £40 million fund to boost farm productivity

Environment Secretary opens a £40 million grants scheme today for investment in farm technology and equipment.

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Farmers will get a £40 million productivity boost today as the Environment Secretary Michael Gove announces the opening of a new grants scheme for investment in cutting edge technology and new equipment.

Speaking at the 2017 World Dairy Summit in Belfast, the Secretary of State will invite farmers and food processors to apply for grants under the Countryside Productivity Scheme.

Under the scheme, grants are available to help livestock, dairy, arable and horticultural farmers improve farm productivity through investing in new technology, such as robotics, to reduce cost or improve product quality. The funding can be used on diverse investments, from robotic milking machines to green technology.

The scheme also offers funds for farmers and food processors to invest in new equipment and machinery to improve the processing of milk, meat and fruit.

Speaking ahead of the summit, Environment Secretary Michael Gove said:

Farmers truly are the backbone of our rural economy and as the original friends of the earth, we want to support them to grow more, sell more and export more great British produce – all while doing good for our environment.

This new funding is a wonderful opportunity for our farmers and food processors to invest in the technology they need to boost productivity, competition and, of course, sustainability as a key factor in future proofing our world leading food and farming industry.

The Countryside Productivity Scheme is part of the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) and this latest announcement is the second phase of the Large Grants scheme announced in July 2017.

The first phase of the scheme included a £6 million fund for Improving Forestry Productivity and a £14 million scheme for Water Resource Management.

The government also recently announced a £30 million Rural Broadband Infrastructure grant and a new Bovine TB Advisory Service supported by more than £1 million of RDPE funding.
 

farmerm

Member
Location
Shropshire
The RPA might struggle to give this £40million away... Having a mimum project cost of £87.5K required to be eligable it does rather limit who can apply... Eligability seems to be further restricted to 4 incredibly narrow areas - 1) robotic equipment, 2) energy storage, 3) and most specific of all, "LED wavelenght controlled lighting" and 4) digestate handling and spreading. Do the ministers who draw up these schemes have vested comercial interests in a) Lely, b) Anesco, c) Lumigrow, d) a digestate machinery business or e) a business interested in purchasing these specific pieces of equipment.... I demand a public enquiry!

Be a dam site more useful to agricultual productivity if they spent the money finding ways to reduce them time we all have to spend on pointless admin.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
This illustrates the basic fallacy that politicians know how to run your business better than you do.

Like gift vouchers from distant relatives at Christmas, this money is often spent for the sake of spending it on something that doesn't quite hit the spot because of the restrictions that come with it.
 

Chris F

Staff Member
Media
Location
Hammerwich
The problem I see, is that it just doesn't really help the average farmer who improve the way he runs his business using available technology. But I like the concept of helping pioneers in the industry who are at the cutting edge, but is this technology really cutting edge now? I'd be a bit miffed if I put a robotic system in last year for instance (or can these be backdated?). Isn't this just like the grants for GPS, all the real pioneers missed out on the grants?

Maybe they would invite to more farmers and less businesses to these grant meetings?
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
Wales has had a small business grant available to farmers for very specific items of equipment since Summer 2017. Not sure how they are getting on with it. I have registered and qualify but I'm damned if I'm going to spend my own money, which is just not there anymore after the last two years, or the taxpayer's on any products that I don't really need. I need to fill holes before digging any more.

They pay a fixed rate for each item based on estimates they've had for themselves.

I am not aware of anyone who has made use of this scheme locally as yet. Nobody expected the first tranche to be oversubscribed but with the big payment due in December, I'd have thought there would be far more applications just now.
 

Chris F

Staff Member
Media
Location
Hammerwich
Wales has had a small business grant available to farmers for very specific items of equipment since Summer 2017. Not sure how they are getting on with it. I have registered and qualify but I'm damned if I'm going to spend my own money, which is just not there anymore after the last two years, or the taxpayer's on any products that I don't really need. I need to fill holes before digging any more.

They pay a fixed rate for each item based on estimates they've had for themselves.

I am not aware of anyone who has made use of this scheme locally as yet. Nobody expected the first tranche to be oversubscribed but with the big payment due in December, I'd have thought there would be far more applications just now.

So what's the answer in your view? These grants shouldn't just be another subsidy - they have to offer them on something specific that makes farmers more efficient and delivers long term benefits for the farming industry. Is it just this type of thing only works for the very few (and maybe the very big)? I've only heard of a few making use of them and certainly couldn't get one to diversify some parts of my farm that I wanted to in the South West.
 

Cowabunga

Member
Location
Ceredigion,Wales
So what's the answer in your view? These grants shouldn't just be another subsidy - they have to offer them on something specific that makes farmers more efficient and delivers long term benefits for the farming industry. Is it just this type of thing only works for the very few (and maybe the very big)? I've only heard of a few making use of them and certainly couldn't get one to diversify some parts of my farm that I wanted to in the South West.

In Wales they are for specific items of named equipment and the available choices cover a good selection for the smaller and livestock farmer. Apart from some min-till implements, I don't recall anything much for bigger farmers. Or not something that a smaller scale farmer might not also consider.

There's nothing there that tempts me to spend money that I would not otherwise spend. While I could do with a new milk cooling tank and several other energy saving and slurry handling bits of kit, I am not in the spending mood as things stand with the economy and politics plus the hole in the finances from last year.

You don't fill a hole by digging deeper.
 

steveR

Member
Mixed Farmer
What the grants are for: These grants are to improve farm productivity through
• the use of robotic equipment and systems to aid crop and livestock production
• increasing the use of renewable energy produced on farm by improving energy storage and distribution


Further info:

• installation of electrical battery storage system to enable better use of renewable electricity produced on the farm. The electrical storage capacity may not exceed the lowest of: - the amount of energy produced in a 24 hour cycle, - the amount of energy used within the business in a 24 hour period, - total power output of battery storage system must not exceed 1 MW

The latter looks interesting to anyone who has renewable generation "on farm" . To me that includes battery storage facilities....

I am looking to see if it allows sale to the Grid for peak demand usage!
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

  • 0 %

    Votes: 80 42.3%
  • Up to 25%

    Votes: 66 34.9%
  • 25-50%

    Votes: 30 15.9%
  • 50-75%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 75-100%

    Votes: 3 1.6%
  • 100% I’ve had enough of farming!

    Votes: 7 3.7%

Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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  • 1
As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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