A project to calculate the carbon footprint of each farm in NI will go ahead, a senior DAERA official has said.

At Stormont last week, George Moffett confirmed that a tender process for appointing a company to deliver a carbon calculator was “terminated” due to a legal challenge.

“We’re committed to it and the minister’s committed to it. We are reinitiating another tender now to go out shortly,” he said.

Moffett said the plan remains that participation in carbon footprinting will eventually become a condition for claiming the new area-based farm sustainability payment (FSP).

Other conditions include participating in the soil nutrient health scheme, complying with the follow on to cross compliance rules, known as farm sustainability standards, and joining the upcoming ruminant genetics scheme.

Moffett said DAERA is aiming to bring forward legislation in the autumn with the aim of rolling out the new FSP from the 2026 scheme year onwards.

It will include the plan for new “progressive capping” of payments over £60,000 and removing landowners from the payment system who had no farming activity in 2020 and 2021.

However, it was the plan to change land eligibility rules from 2026 onwards which created the most debate at Stormont’s agriculture committee last week.

William Irwin from the DUP repeatedly queried why 35,000 hectares of land that is currently deemed ineligible for payment is becoming eligible given that no new entitlements are being made available.

Aidan McEvoy from DAERA explained that the rationale was to “disincentivise” farmers from making land eligible for payment by undertaking measures such as spraying rushes, removing scrub or trimming back hedges.

MLAs were also told that farmers with extra eligible land could have the option to buy or lease entitlements from farm businesses that have surplus entitlements.

“With so many conditions being placed, there may be plenty of entitlements going around [for sale or lease] by the end of this process,” suggested the DUP’s Michelle McIlveen.