Rural Payments Agency
If youre a farmer, land manager or forester, you can apply for money to help you improve farm productivity and the environment.
Before you apply for a payment, youll need to check you (and your land, if relevant) are eligible.
You can apply for more than one of the available payments if:
- you meet the eligibility requirements for each payment
- the activities or outcomes youre being paid for are compatible
- you will not be paid twice for a similar activity or outcome at the same time (and on the same area of land if its a land-based scheme)
One-off payments
One-off payments are to help you buy equipment or other capital items, or for activities you do once.
Investing in equipment, technology and infrastructure
The Farming Investment Fund (FIF) provides grants between 1,000 and 500,000 to improve productivity, the environment and animal health and welfare.
You can apply for:
- productivity and slurry items
- animal health and welfare items from March
The other FIF grants are currently closed to new applicants, but there will be further application rounds.
Research and innovation
You can apply for grants for innovation, research and development from the Farming Innovation Programme.
Improving animal health and welfare
Farmers who keep cattle, sheep or pigs can get funding to pay for a vet or vet-lead team to visit their farm and carry out an annual health and welfare review. If youre a Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) eligible farmer, you can register your interest to apply for this funding on GOV.UK.
Later this year, youll also be able to apply for animal health and welfare capital grants for equipment, technology and infrastructure.
Improving boundaries, trees and orchards, water quality, air quality and natural flood management
You can apply for standalone capital grants under Countryside Stewardship (CS) Capital Grants 2023 to help you improve:
- boundaries, trees and orchards
- water quality
- air quality
- natural flood management
You can apply for these grants at any time of the year.
Improving environmentally significant sites and woodlands
CS Higher Tier Capital Grants 2023 offers standalone capital grants to improve environmentally significant sites and woodlands.
You can apply for these grants at any time of year.
Improving woodland infrastructure and protection from beaver activity
You can apply for CS Protection and Infrastructure Grants, which offer standalone capital grants to:
- improve management of woodlands by making them more accessible by road, allowing timber and other forest products to be moved for easily
- protect permanent crops and trees from beaver activity in eligible catchments
You can apply for these grants at any time of year.
Improving management of woodlands
The CS Woodland Management Plan grant 2023 offers a one-off payment to create a 10-year Woodland Management Plan that complies with the UK Forestry Standard.
Your plan must be approved by the Forestry Commission before you can apply for ongoing payments to deliver your plan under CS Higher Tier.
You can apply for this one-off payment at any time of the year.
Improving the health of trees
CS Woodland Tree Health Grants 2023 offers one-off payments to support:
- restocking woodland after felling due to a tree health issue
- removing trees and rhododendron infected with specific diseases
You can apply for these one-off payments at any time of year.
You can apply for funding through the tree health pilot if you manage specific trees or woodlands infected by specific pests and diseases in certain regions of England.
The tree health pilot offers different support to the CS Tree Health Grants, which will end in 2024.
The tree health pilot will run until 2024.
Supporting national parks and areas of outstanding natural beauty (AONBs)
The Farming in Protected Landscapes Programme provides funding to all farmers and land managers within anAONBor National Park in England who are planning projects that:
- support nature recovery
- mitigate the impacts of climate change
- provide opportunities for people to discover nature
- protect or improve the quality and character of the landscape
You can apply for funding any time up until the programme ends in March 2025. Your project must end in March 2025.
Leaving farming
The optional Lump Sum Exit Scheme enables farmers who were BPS applicants in 2018 or earlier to retire or leave the industry. It closed for applications on 30 September 2022.
Ongoing payments
Ongoing payments are for activities that usually take you a year or more to complete.
Managing your land in an environmentally sustainable way
If youre a BPS eligible farmer, you can apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) to get paid for environmentally sustainable land management actions.
SFI is being rolled out incrementally, so it will expand each year until the full range of actions are available by early 2025.
You can currently apply for money to:
- support soil management
- assess the moorland and identify the environmental benefits it provides
Later this year youll be able to apply for funding to help with:
- integrated pest management
- nutrient management
- arable land
- improved grassland
- low input grassland
- hedgerows
The environmental land management update has information about the new actions that will be introduced this year.
You can apply for SFI at any time of year.
Managing habitats, woodlands, flood risk and reducing water pollution
You can apply for Countryside Stewardship (CS) to get paid to manage habitats, woodland, flood risk