DAERA has confirmed that over 1,800 farm businesses have applied to join the Business Sustainability Groups (BSG) scheme.

BSGs have been developed to support groups of farmers to improve the economic and environmental sustainability of their farm businesses.

“CAFRE is currently in the process of assessing applications, determining their eligibility and assigning them to particular groups,” said a DAERA spokesperson.

Eligibility criteria

In the first year CAFRE aimed to recruit 1,300 applicants to the programme. As it is oversubscribed a short-listing points-based selection criteria will be applied to applications. Participants can score a maximum of 17 points.

Most of the points relate to the size of the farm, measured on the basis of standard labour requirement (SLR) determined from the latest farm census data. One SLR in a farm business is equivalent to 1900 hours per annum or 36.5hr per week. A farm business with over 3.5 SLR will score 15 points, while a farm with 1 SLR will score 4 points.

Other criteria will be based on the applicant’s age, with those under 40 eligible for one point. Additionally, as women are under-represented, female applicants are eligible for one point.