AQW 18122/17-22

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 28/04/2021
Answered On Date: 14/05/2021
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs for an update on his Department’s work to implement the recommendations of the Sustainable Agricultural Land Management Strategy report.

Answer:

My Department and the then Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Michelle McIlveen MLA, supported and attended the launch of the Sustainable Agricultural Land Management Strategy (SALMS) for Northern Ireland on 21 October 2016 titled ‘Delivering our future, valuing our soils’, which was published by an independent Expert Working Group (EWG).

Since that launch my Department has been working closely with the EWG and implementing actions associated with the recommendations made in the strategy report.

Significant investment has been made to assist farmers manage their land more sustainably, these include:

Soil testing and analysis pilots schemes have been delivered across 1,613 farms and covering 49,711 hectares of land and an NI wide scheme is being developed;

CAFRE is delivering advice to approximately 415 farms through the new Environmental Business Development Group Programme where 20 groups have been set up across the province focusing on sustainable farm systems and helping farmers identify carbon reduction measures and how to improve protection of the environment.

Forest Service is leading on ‘Forests for our Future’ aiming to create 9,000 hectares of new woodland by 2030 and plan to open a new stand-alone Small Woodland Grant Scheme to help farmers integrate woodland on their farms. Also, the Environmental Farming Scheme supports over 5,000 farms via carbon friendly practices including maintaining and establishing native woodland, hedgerows, agro-forestry and peatland restoration.

The Farm Business Improvement Scheme Capital (FBIS-C) has provided almost £14.5m of grant aid in total to over 3,000 farm businesses over the first two tranches of Tier 1, which has helped support the purchase of a large range of more efficient, precision and emissions reducing technologies. Letters of Offer have begun to issue for the third tranche of Tier 1 FBIS Capital, which has a funding allocation of £15million, following the very positive response in applications received, particularly for Low Emissions Slurry Spreading Equipment.

The Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) will provide approximately £59m of financial aid 3,985 wider level agreements and 775 higher level agreements under the first three tranches of the EFS scheme.

My officials will continue to develop measures of support for farms to play their part in protecting the environment while producing food sustainably. Officials will continue to work on the actions to implement key recommendations of the SALMS report, including those that will help inform the development and implementation of future agri support schemes.