Thousands of NI farmers will not be eligible to apply for the initial phase of a new environmental grant scheme, DAERA has confirmed.

At Stormont last week, Manus McHenry from DAERA said the new Farming With Nature (FWN) package will open for applications in mid-June for six weeks.

Not eligible

“In the first tranche, farm businesses holding a current Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) agreement, wider or higher [level], will not be eligible to apply,” he said.

Analysis of DAERA figures by the Irish Farmers Journal indicates there are around 4,500 ongoing EFS agreements at present.

While EFS agreements run for five years, wider plans require farmers to complete most measures in the first year, so little environmental work is carried out for the other four years.

EFS higher level is for environmental designated sites, but the initial phases of the new FWN scheme will only apply to land which is not designated.

For eligible farms, there will be five measures in the first tranche of FWN, and payment rates are generally higher than the previous EFS offering.

The payment for planting new hedgerows has been set at £6.49/m, with erecting new fencing available as an optional extra at £6.52/m.

New fencing can run up to twice the length of the hedgerow, which means the maximum grant for a new double fenced hedge is £19.53/m.

It compares to a payment rate of £17.63/m under the last tranche of EFS wider level.

Two measures are available to fence off watercourses under FWN, with a 2m wide riparian buffer set at £7.93/m and a wider 7m buffer zone option is £11.45/m.

A tree-planting measure allows various plots to be planted across a farm down to a minimum size of 0.05 hectares (ha) and it has a payment rate equating to £6,756/ha.

There are two FWN measures for arable land, namely retention of winter stubble for £93/ha and a new option for an NI environment scheme is multispecies winter cover crop at £225/ha.

Other “supporting items” are available as an optional extra for successful FWN applicants, such as fencing, gates, and water drinkers.

Additional measures

Manus McHenry said additional measures are likely to be available for the second tranche of FWN which will open for applications in 2026.

The DAERA official said FWN aims to be more flexible than the previous EFS initiative, with scheme participants not required to complete all the work in their initial application.

“They are not held to what they applied for. There is room there to adjust their original application,” McHenry said.

However, he said successful applicants in the first tranche will be required to complete work under the scheme by the end of March 2026.

There is an annual cap of £9,500 on FWN payments and the minimum application claim is £2,500. Eligible farmers will also be able to apply to the FWN scheme each year.