AQW 20947/22-27 Written question to the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
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.
Asked by John Blair MLA on 21 January 2025
- Answered
- Written
- Tabled
- 21 January 2025
- Answer due by
- 5 February 2025
- Answered
- 29 January 20258 days after tabling
- Priority question
- No
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