What farming grants are coming up?

After much uncertainty over the future of farming grants, the government has provided further information on the FETF and other available funding. 

FETF

The last FETF round closed in May 2024 and no further rounds were announced last year, following the general election in July.

Under the recently announced FETF round for 2025, £46.7 million has been made available for three types of grant worth up to £25,000 each. These allow farmers to invest  in day-to-day equipment to boost productivity, manage slurry or improve animal health and welfare.  

The grants cover over 160 pieces of eligible equipment across the three themes – examples include slurry separators, livestock ventilation systems, cattle and sheep handling systems, direct drills, and forestry and irrigation equipment, assuming they meet the criteria.

The Farming Equipment and Technology Fund will open on 29th May and close on 10th July.

For the full list of eligible items and how to apply, visit: www.gov.uk/government/publications/farming-equipment-and-technology-fund-2025  

FIP

Meanwhile, the £5m Investor Partnerships programme will blend government grant money with private investment to bring cutting edge technology to market, giving farmers and food producers faster and more widespread access to state-of-the-art innovations.  

A successful pilot has so far brought high-yield broccoli harvesters and new seed cleaning technologies to market. 

FIP Investor Partnerships will open from 2nd June to 2nd July. 

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ADOPT

Additionally, the Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) fund, is a new grant launched by DEFRA in April 2025, as part of the Farming Innovation Programme. 

Delivered by Innovate UK, the fund will provide grants of between £50,000–100,000, to help farmers trial new technologies and practices on their farms through farmer-led research projects, advises Penelope Edgar, head of agriculture & rural affairs at Thomson Snell & Passmore.

Projects funded through ADOPT will need to focus on improving one of the following: 

• Productivity and profitability
• Resilience to challenges i.e. climate change
• Reducing the environmental impact of farming.

Two types of grants available: 

• A full ADOPT grant for ‘on farm trial and demonstration projects’, of between £50,000 and £100,000
• An ADOPT facilitator support grant of £2,500 for a farmer ‘to engage an external project facilitator to support with submissions’.

Applying for the grant is a competitive process, and not every application will be successful.

For more information: Competition overview – Full ADOPT Grant: Round 1 – Innovation Funding Service.

Other available funding

Defra has also recently announced that the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2024 scheme would be reopened for around 3,000 applicants. 

Those who had started an application within two months of 11^th March 2025 but had not yet submitted their application will now be able to complete it. However there are restrictions on who can apply and what they will be able to claim. 

The move comes after a group of NFU-backed farmers threatened a legal challenge over the decision to close the SFI without notice.

Other grants announced this year include the improved Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier scheme – currently available by invitation only.

Meanwhile the Capital Grants scheme is set to reopen in the summer and farmers in England’s protected landscapes can apply for funding from the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme until March 2026. 

There was also an update to the Animal Health and Welfare Review in February, meaning farmers can apply for funding for more than one species.

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