AQW 20947/22-27

Mr John Blair
Alliance Party
South Antrim

Tabled Date: 21/01/2025
Answered On Date: 29/01/2025
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail the number of Environmental Farming Scheme agreements currently in place, broken down by (i) wider level agreements; and (ii) higher level agreements.

Answer:

The Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) is a voluntary agri-environment scheme that supports farmers and land managers to carry out environmentally beneficial farming practices on agricultural land. Each agreement lasts for 5 years.

EFS is made up of three levels - Wider, Higher and Group.

A total of 6,387 EFS agreements have been entered into across eight tranches since the EFS opened for applications in July 2017. These were 4,426 Wider agreements and 1,961 Higher agreements. A total of 4,464 agreements from Tranches 1, 2 and 3 have now completed their 5-year term.

At present there are 1,923 active EFS agreements; 704 EFS Wider agreements and 1,219* EFS Higher agreements. A further 70 EFS Higher Tranche 8 offers of agreement will issue early February 2025, which, if all accepted, will bring the total agreement numbers to 1,993.

*This figure includes 132 Tranche 8 agreements