Guidance

About the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund 2023

Updated 8 November 2023

Applies to England

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You can apply for a grant for specific items of equipment and technology for farming, horticultural and forestry businesses.

Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF) 2023 has been split into 2 themes:

• Productivity and Slurry items (Annex 3)
• Animal Health and Welfare items (Annex 4).

You can apply to either theme or both, for items that best suit your business.

FETF 2023 grant is competitive, and you will not automatically get a grant.

For how FETF 2023 has changed from FETF Round 1 please see the How the FETF 2023 has changed from the FETF Round 1 section.

FETF 2023 is administered by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

Who can apply

You can apply for a grant if your business is in England and you’re a:

• farmer
• horticulturalist
• forestry owner
• contractor carrying out services to any of the above

Grants for items on the Animal Health and Welfare list are available to farmers or contractors in the following sectors:

• beef cattle
• dairy cattle
• sheep
• pigs
• laying hens (including rearing and breeding farms)
• broilers (including rearing and breeding farms)

Other livestock types are not eligible for funding under the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway at this time.

Contractors can only apply if they have a registered business address in England. Contractors are defined as a business (including a sole trader) that carries out an agricultural, horticultural or forestry activity as a service.

Lump Sum Exit

If you successfully applied for the Lump Sum Exit (LSE) scheme but have not yet been paid, you are still eligible to apply for FETF 2023 funding. You will only be able to keep any FETF 2023 grant funding if you chose not to exit farming and therefore do not claim an LSE payment. If you choose to exit from farming by 31 May 2024 or if you have already exited farming through the LSE, you are not eligible for the FETF 2023.

We will be regularly carrying out cross checks of all FETF applicants’ details against those who applied for the LSE and received an LSE payment. If any successful FETF 2023 applicant is found to have exited through LSE, and received an LSE payment, we will recover any grant funds issued through FETF 2023.  If you have accepted an LSE payment but will remain as a contractor you are eligible to apply for FETF 2023. For further information on how LSE may affect your eligibility for grants, please contact RPA on 03000 200 301.

Who cannot apply

The following are not eligible to receive the grant:

• Non-Departmental Public Bodies
• Crown bodies

How much money you can apply for

FETF grants are for a minimum of £1,000 and a maximum of £25,000 per theme. This means the maximum grant you can receive for Productivity and Slurry items is £25,000 and the maximum grant you can receive for Animal Health and Welfare items is £25,000.

If you were successful and received funding in Round 1 you can still apply for up to £25,000 per theme.

The minimum and maximum grant levels apply to 2023 only. In future, there may be a cap added for the total grant that can be claimed over more than one year.

The amount listed against each item in Annex 3 and Annex 4 is the actual grant amount we will pay you and is a contribution towards the total cost of the item. It is your responsibility to fund the remaining cost of an item. Items must be paid for in full before claiming your grant payment.

Regardless of how much you pay for an item, you will receive the grant amount listed, whether it is less or more than you paid. For example, if you buy an item costing £2,000 and the grant amount listed at Annex 3 and Annex 4 for that item is £800, you need to pay the remaining £1,200 yourself. You can’t fund this remaining amount with other UK public funds such as other grants, or by lease or hire purchase.

All purchased items must meet the minimum specifications shown in Annex 3 and Annex 4 although you can buy an item with a higher specification. For example:

• for Productivity and Slurry, if you want item FETF45 – Direct drill 6m, but you buy a 12m version instead, this is eligible as you have met the item’s minimum specification
• for Animal Health and Welfare, if you want item FETF243A Sheep race (minimum total length of 4800mm) but buy a sheep race that is 6000mm long instead, this is eligible as you have met the item’s minimum specification

What the grant can pay for

The grant is a contribution towards the cost of buying new technology or equipment from an approved list in Annex 3 for Productivity and Slurry and Annex 4 for Animal Health and Welfare. All items must meet the specifications.

The items on each list have been identified to help with some or all of the following:

• improve agricultural productivity
• contribute to improved animal health and welfare
• encourage more sustainable pesticide and fertiliser usage
• improve air and water quality
• reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in line with Net Zero targets
• reduce unsustainable use of abstracted water
• encourage sustainable management of woodlands

Items must be purchased through a supplier or manufacturer and not be home built.

If the equipment you want is not listed, or does not meet the minimum specification, it is not eligible for this grant. If you buy ineligible items at the same time as items you can claim for, ask your supplier to invoice them separately. It may take us longer to process your claim if eligible and ineligible items are included.

What the grant cannot pay for

You must not apply for a grant for any items that you have already received or intend to receive public funding (a grant) for.

Examples of schemes that provide funding for similar items are:

• FETF Round 1
• Farming Transformation Fund
• Farming In Protected Landscapes (FiPL)
• Countryside Stewardship
• The Fruit and Vegetables Producer Organisation Operational Programme
• Countryside Productivity
• The Growth Programme
• LEADER
• Farming Recovery Fund
• Cumbria Countryside Access Fund

You must also not apply for a grant for any items you have already bought.

You must not buy your items from a supplier who you or your business are part of or linked to in any way.

Only brand-new items can be funded through the FETF. Ex-demo, second hand and ‘try before you buy’ items are not eligible for this grant.

You cannot use part exchange of goods as evidence of payment. Payment for goods claimed under this fund must be made in full for the value of the goods shown on the invoice. If the part exchange is against non-grant funded items, ask the supplier to invoice these separately. You must also make sure no items in your application are replacements covered by an insurance claim.

If the piece of equipment meets the specification of more than one item, you can only apply for grant funding once. For example:

• for Productivity and Slurry, if you buy a yield monitoring device, which also has variable rate control functionality, you can only apply for either FETF51 Yield monitoring or FETF50 Variable rate controller, not both
• for Animal Health and Welfare, if you buy FETF56 Mobile cattle handling system which also has FETF79 weigh bars and weigh platforms for weighing livestock integrated into it, you can only apply for either FETF56 or FETF79, not both

An FETF 2023 grant must not be used to cross-subsidise any related, linked, parent, subsidiary, partnership, joint venture businesses or operations based in Northern Ireland. Funds from this grant must be used only for business operations in England.

Productivity and Slurry theme only - important note for foresters

FETF Grants are subject to subsidy control rules. Grants to foresters who do not undertake any agricultural or horticultural activity as part of their day-to-day operations, will be awarded under the Minimal Financial Assistance (MFA) exemption in the Subsidy Control Act 2022. Under the MFA exemption (previously known as ‘de minimis aid’ or the Small Amounts of Funding Exemption (SAFE)), a business (including any current or former subsidiaries or branches) can receive subsidies of up to a maximum amount £315,000 over any period of three financial years.

Any grant offer will be conditional on compliance with the MFA exemption and the receipt by RPA of a declaration form from the grant recipient confirming the level of MFA or comparable types of funding received in the current and previous two financial years (including aid given under EU state aid de minimis regulations and SAFE under the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement). If you are a forester and have received previous MFA funding, SAFE or de minimis aid, we recommend you only place orders that can be cancelled and refunded.

Where the grant is made under the MFA, you will have to keep a copy of the Grant Funding Agreement and MFA declaration for a period of at least ten years from the date of the payment.

You can find more details on the declaration form.

Animal Health and Welfare theme only - important note for applicants

We strongly recommend that you talk to a vet before you apply for animal health and welfare items. They can advise you if the items you’re applying for will help you improve the health and welfare of your livestock. You can get advice by phone, email, or as part of a vet visit.

You may be eligible to apply for a fully funded vet visit as part of the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) annual health and welfare review offers farmers who keep cattle, sheep and pigs funding for an annual visit from a vet of their choice to carry out diagnostic testing and provide bespoke advice to improve the health and welfare of their animals.

Read more about the SFI annual health and welfare review.

How FETF 2023 has changed from FETF Round 1

For FETF 2023 we have introduced 2 themes, with separate application windows and timelines.

The minimum grant has been reduced to £1,000 per theme and you can apply for a total grant of up to £25,000 per theme.

We have reviewed the list of available items in consultation with farmers, industry groups and other stakeholders and new items have been added. Items included in FETF Round 1 have been split over the 2 themes for this round.

The item specifications may have changed for items that were previously available under FETF Round 1, so you will need to check these carefully. However, the same numbers, e.g. FETF45 have been used from FETF Round 1 for FETF 2023 items.

Some items have also been removed from the list. These are:

• FETF42 Improving efficiency of existing plate coolers, due to limited uptake in FETF Round 1 and improvements in technology meaning the item needs to be reviewed - FETF41 Plate heat exchanger for cooling milk (plate cooler) is still available
• FETF113 Comb weeders, as the cost of this item has greatly increased and no longer falls within the maximum limit
• FETF115 Wide area network equipment, as the cost of this item has dropped to a level where grant support was not considered justified
• FETF116 Fibre optic networking equipment, as the cost of this item has dropped to a level where grant support was not considered justified
• FEFT119 Co2 monitor, as this is handheld and being replaced with a static monitor
• FEFT120 Ammonia monitor, as this is handheld and being replaced with a static monitor

You are no longer required to send in UK CE markings, and we now only require serial numbers for some specific items. Please see the specifications in Annex 3 and Annex 4 for more details.

How the grant works

Start by looking at the lists of FETF items to see if there are any you are interested in. If there are, you need to follow the steps below to apply and claim for funding towards them.

The earlier you submit your application, the more time you will have to fix any errors and submit a new application.

Steps you need to follow

1. Check if you are eligible by reading the Who can apply section.
2. Check the availability of your chosen items with your supplier. You will have to pay for and install all items before you can claim a grant towards them, and ahead of the claim submission deadline. The claim submission deadlines for FETF 2023 will be confirmed in your Grant Funding Agreement (GFA). The deadlines are expected to be November 2023 for Productivity and Slurry items and December 2023 for Animal Health and Welfare items.
3. Check the items will be compatible with your existing systems, and you have suitable IT connectivity.
4. Check that your business details and permissions (not your maps) in the Rural Payments service are correct. If not, update them. If you are not registered on Rural Payments, you will need to register.
5. Submit your application online. Both portals are now closed for applications.
6. Your details will then be checked against Rural Payments. If you receive an email stating that your application cannot be accepted because the details provided in your application do not match those in the Rural Payments service, make any required changes and resubmit your application.
7. Your application will then be checked for eligibility and scored by RPA. If your application is successful, you will receive a GFA offer by email for each application you submitted to either the Productivity and Slurry or Animal Health and Welfare portal.
8. Accept your GFA on the online Acceptance portal by the date detailed in your GFA. You will be provided with a link to the Productivity and Slurry or Animal Health and Welfare acceptance portal in your GFA.
9. Buy all the items listed in your GFA, making sure they meet the relevant item specification(s) listed in Annex 3 for Productivity and Slurry and Annex 4 for Animal Health and Welfare. If you don’t, you may not be able to claim any funding.
10. Once you have paid for and installed the item and it is in use, submit a single claim for payment. This should include all the items in your GFA, along with any required supporting documentation, as detailed in the How to claim your grant section. Email your claim to FETFClaims@rpa.gov.uk by the claim deadline included in your GFA.
11. You’ll receive your claim payment into your bank or building society account registered with Rural Payments.
12. Keep grant funded items at the location stated in your GFA operational and in good repair for five years from the date your claim is paid.
13. Record the items on the business asset register for a minimum of five years from the date your claim is paid. Keep copies of relevant documentation, including invoices, receipts and bank or building society statements for seven years.