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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Gordon Jones

Gordon Jones

Prior to joining Defra, Gordon worked in the dairy industry managing a 250-cow Cheshire dairy herd.

Gordon now leads work on developing the new Farming Investment Fund.

Water Management grant: there's still time to apply

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Rain droplet on crop

There’s still time for you to apply for a Water Management grant before the window closes on 12 July. The grant is available to horticultural and arable businesses growing, or intending to grow, irrigated food crops, ornamentals, or forestry nurseries. The maximum grant available is £500,000 per applicant per funding round. The minimum grant you can apply for is £35,000. 

More time to suggest productivity and slurry items

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Valley of Patterns and Textures in Devon

We recently asked you to help us shape the list of items under the Productivity and Slurry theme of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund (FETF). The survey was due to close on 3 July. However, in response to requests to keep the survey open for a little longer, we’ve extended the deadline to midday, Wednesday 12 July.

Help us to review productivity and slurry grant items 

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Flock of birds over Hele Payne Farm. Showing Raddon Hill in the background.

The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund supports the purchase of equipment, technology, and infrastructure designed to improve agricultural, horticultural and forestry productivity in a sustainable way.  Grants are offered towards the cost of specific items of equipment on a list.  We promised to review the list of productivity and slurry items and we'd like your help.

Farming Investment Fund: a new grant

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Silverton Farmland

Before we launched Improving Farm Productivity in January, we made the manual available for people to look at on GOV.UK. Feedback suggested you found this helpful. So, ahead of its launch in June, we are making the manual for the next theme available today: Adding Value. In June, you can apply for a grant for buildings, machinery or equipment so that producers can add value to eligible agricultural products after they are harvested or reared.

The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund: review of items

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Slurry injector injecting dirty water to a field via a umbilical system on the Blackdown Hills

The items for the first round of the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund were developed with farmers, industry groups and other stakeholders. We’re adopting the same approach for the next round. We want you to tell us which items should be included, which items should be removed and which specifications need to be updated.

Improving Farm Productivity grants: open for applications

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At the end of last year, we published a manual on the Improving Farm Productivity grant, which is part of the Farming Transformation Fund. Today we opened the window for applications. We’re also hosting a webinar next week for you to find out more. 

The Farming Investment Fund: more notice, more information and a new opportunity ahead 

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Last month, we launched the Farming Investment Fund. It included the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund and the Water Management theme of the Farming Transformation Fund. Since the launch, we’ve had regular conversations to hear your views our approach. We want to make improvements as we go. In this post, I’ll share what we heard and what we’re doing to make things better as a result.  

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