9 Sep 2022

Funding for farmers - a useful resource

The agricultural industry has for decades been one where some form of government subsidy has been available. Those with very long memories may recall the “deficiency payments” which ran from 1947-1973, and more recently we have seen set aside, area aid. Single payment, basic payment, ELS, HLS and various forms of stewardship, not to mention numerous types of capital grant

Whilst most of these are now long gone, and in time all support will be channelled through the new generation of Environmental Land Management Schemes (ELMS) there are still a number of continuing historic schemes, some of which will be running concurrently with the diminishing basic payment regime and the new simplified Sustainable Farm Initiative (SFI) which will be available in the near future.

Keeping on top of all these income sources and understanding what is coming when, from whom, and how it should be recognised can be challenging. It is however important to understand the fundamental rules for each payment so that the appropriate accruals or prepayments can be me within year end accounts for both management and taxation purposes. Whilst there is little alternative to a detailed study of the appropriate accounting standards (FRS 102/105) one the recognition issue, a useful document was published be DEFRA on 9th March which may make identification a little bit easier.

'Funding for farmers' is a relatively short (5 pages) document which links all the current schemes and is cross referenced to each set of detailed information. It is designed to identify schemes by function but can easily be used in reverse to drill back from a scheme title to the detail. 'Funding for farmers' can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/fu...

Chapter headings are:

  • Environmental land management funding
  • Trees, animal health, slurry and protected landscape funding
  • Innovation, technology, research and development funding
  • Joining farming
  • Leaving farming
  • Get help with farm funding

Each heading provides links to the available schemes so, for example, clicking on “trees” will take you to separate websites for woodland creation, woodland maintenance, tree health funding and a summary page for woodland grants and incentives.

Clearly the page is intended to direct farmers to the relevant grants without the need for extensive internet searching, but as accountants it will also usefully enable us to identify cashflows, facilitate business plan and answer the question “can I get a grant for this” (or if we are trying to ensure all debtors are complete “did you apply for the grant for that?”

To discuss this further, please contact Andrew.