The Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs (DEARA) has announced that the sixth tranche of the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) Higher Level is open for application. It is expected to to close on 13 May.
EFS Higher Level provides participants with annual payments to help with bringing our most important environmental sites under favourable management. It additionally focuses on land with environmental designations, such as Special Areas of Conservation (SAC) and Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI).
Interested parties can check if their land is eligible via the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) Online Services website, under ‘EFS’. There, fields for each farm business under the Environmental Farming Scheme which will be marked as either ‘Higher’ or ‘Wider’ level. Only those businesses with eligible ‘Higher’ fields will be able to submit an EFS Higher application.
The Department is encouraging anyone who meets the eligibility criteria to apply, and added that it provides the opportunity for those farmers whose agreements will come to an end in December to reapply to the scheme. 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.
It is anticipated the EFS Tranche-six agreements will start on January 1, 2023 and run for five years to December 31, 2027. EFS Higher Level aims to deliver site-specific management of environmentally designated sites and other priority habitats.
Applications can be submitted online only.