The eighth tranche of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) Higher Level, is open for applications from Wednesday, May 1 until Friday, May 17.
This is a voluntary scheme which supports farmers to implement environmentally beneficial actions and works on their land.
It aims to protect and enhance biodiversity and water quality and mitigate climate change by sequestering carbon.
EFS Higher Level provides participants to the scheme with payments to bring the most important sites under favourable management.
This includes land in a RAMSAR Site, Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPAs), or Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI).
In addition, fields categorised as areas of priority habitat in EFS are also eligible.
The eligibility of fields can be viewed using DAERA Online Services under the Environmental Farming Scheme application. Only businesses with eligible Higher fields will be able to submit an EFS Higher application.
Businesses that currently hold an active tranche 3 Higher Agreement, which will end on December 31 2024, are also eligible to apply to Tranche 8.
If you wish to continue to claim for EFS Higher payments after that date, you must re-apply to the scheme.
Applications for Tranche 8 must be submitted via your DAERA online Services account before midnight on Friday, May 17.
If the number of applications exceeds the available resource, applications will be ranked and those providing the highest environmental benefit will be selected to proceed.
Applications from businesses in an EFS Group Scheme, or those who completed a previous EFS agreement, or who were unsuccessful in the Tranche 7 application last year, will be considered in the prioritisation.
However, this does not mean that a business will automatically be selected to proceed in Tranche 8.
DAERA is developing a Farming with Nature Programme that will replace EFS in due course.
