Agricultural committee hears plans to 'broaden, strengthen and simplify' the Farming with Nature transition scheme

Manus McHenry, Deputy Director of Agricultural Policy in the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs said: “The transition scheme is the first strand of the package, and launched in 2025 focusing on farmland outside designated land and other priority habitat areas.

“It allows farmers to implement actions that will deliver additional habitats, protect water courses, provide green infrastructure for nature corridors, and increase carbon sequestration.

"The Farming with Nature transition scheme must have been been developed and continues to be developed through an engagement process that includes the agriculture policy stakeholder group and the farming and nature Working Group, which consists of key stakeholders from both the agriculture and environmental sectors.”

He added that “there's also extensive ongoing engagement across policy and enabling teams, including design, delivery and inspection branches within DAERA”.

He added that six environmental actions were offered in year one of the scheme, including planting of new hedgerows, creation of or repairing buffer steps, tree planting and multi species winter cover crop.

“These were not all mandatory, but could be selected to set individual farm requirements”.

"The first year the scheme had a number of eligibility requirements to be able to apply to the scheme, an applicant had to be in possession of a DAERA category one or two business identification number and have management control of the fields in which actions were to be carried out,” he added.

“Also in the first year, farm businesses holding a current EFS agreement, wider or higher were not eligible to apply”.

He added that “876 applications were received, and 784 applications were approved” and the claim period closed on the 31st of March, with 507 claims submitted”.

"Inspections are underway, with payments expected to be issued in June,” he added.

However, Dr Devina Park, Grade 7, Farming with Nature Policy Unit in DAERA said: “In preparation for year two of the scheme, my team has broadened, strengthened and simplified the farming with nature transition scheme, drawing on research, lessons learned and feedback from the farming with nature working group, individual farmers and wider stakeholders subject to final business case and legislative approvals.

"The revised approach will incorporate an expanded set of actions and enhanced payment rates for actions that deliver multiple benefits.

“This wider scope aims to enhance both the reach, attractiveness to the farming community and overall environmental impact of the scheme.

"In addition to the six actions available in year one, an additional eight actions will be offered.

"These include three arable field margins, two herbal lay actions and three actions to support the ongoing management of hedgerows, farmland trees.

“The scheme eligibility criteria has been expanded to include active Environmental Farming scheme agreement holders, allowing them to join the farming with nature transition scheme and take on additional environmental work, taking farmer and stakeholder feedback into consideration the minimum application threshold of £2,500 pounds has been removed, and this will enable smaller projects to be taken forward. “The upper limit on the application value has also been increased to £20,000 pounds to provide more scope for environmental action.

"In addition, a number of simplifications and improvements have been made to the year one Environmental Action specifications and improvements have been incorporated into the application process, aiming to improve customer experience”.

Addressing the Chair of the Committee Robbie Butler, she said: “The next step for the farming manager transition scheme is to bring forward draft farming Manager Scheme amendment regulations for your consideration, and we propose to do that in early June.”