Defra Farm Productivity Grant

What is the grant available for?

Farm businesses wishing to invest in solar panels, robotics or automated equipment on-farm can now apply for grant funding through Defra’s Improving Farm Productivity scheme.

Funding of between £25,000 and £500,000 will be available for investment in robotic and automated equipment, with grants covering up to 50% of the total cost.

For solar projects, grants of up to £100,000 will be up for grabs and these will cover 25% of the total project cost.

The funding is intended to help aid crop and livestock production and increase renewable energy generation on farm.

Projects will be prioritised based on whether they can improve productivity, the environment or innovation, or introduce technology to address labour shortages.

Any eligibility criteria

For equipment to be eligible, it has to be considered either robotic or automatic. This means that for:

Robotic: it has to perform all 4 of the following functions in a continuous loop by sensing, understanding, planning, and controlling without human intervention

Automatic: it has to perform at least 2 of the following function:

• sensing the environment in which it operates
• understanding its environment from what it has sensed
• planning what it needs to do from what it has understood
• controlling the operation or process it has decided needs to be done (including controlling of actuators which may or may not be part of the eligible project costs)

What grant amounts are available?

If your application is for robotic or automatic equipment, wavelength specific LED lighting and/or advanced ventilation control units, but does not include solar PV equipment, the minimum grant you can apply for is £25,000 (50% of £50,000). The maximum grant is £500,000 per applicant business.

If your application is for solar PV equipment only, the minimum grant you can apply for is £15,000 (25% of £60,000). The maximum grant is £100,000 per applicant business.

If you want to apply for both a Solar grant and a Farm Productivity grant, you must submit 2 separate applications. The maximum grant across all submitted applications is £500,000 in total, per applicant business.

How to apply for the grant?

There is a two-stage application process, with an online checker open for applicants to check whether they are eligible for funding. This is due to remain open until 21 March.

Applicants found to be eligible through the checker will then be invited to submit a full application.

The timeframe to complete a full application will run until 30 June 2025, to give applicants time to secure planning if needed.

For more information please click here.