Mr Patsy McGlone (Mid Ulster): To ask the Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs to detail any steps his Department is taking to support farmers in diversifying and expanding businesses.
Minister of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: My Department is committed to supporting a thriving, resilient and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector and to ensuring that farm businesses are equipped to grow and adapt to future challenges.
The latest figures published by my Department show that Total Income from Farming in Northern Ireland reached £1.03 billion in 2025, demonstrating the continued strength and importance of our agri-food sector. My Department provided £303 million in direct support to farmers in 2025, helping to underpin farm incomes and deliver. environmentally sustainable, efficient and resilient farm businesses.
The future of the agricultural sector will be supported through a combination of enhanced productivity and the creation of new, diversified income opportunities for farmers. Through the Sustainable Agriculture Programme (SAP), including measures such as the Farm Sustainability Payment, Beef Carbon Reduction Scheme, Farming with Nature Package and the advisory, skills and knowledge transfer services delivered by CAFRE, my Department is supporting farm businesses to improve efficiency, adopt innovation, strengthen competitiveness and increase profitability. At the same time, we are recognising that farmers deliver important environmental public goods that are not adequately rewarded by conventional markets, including carbon sequestration, biodiversity enhancement, improved water quality and greater climate resilience. Through schemes such as the Farming with Nature Package, my Department is helping to ensure that farmers receive fair financial reward for delivering these outcomes, creating additional, diversified and more resilient income streams while contributing to Northern Ireland’s climate and environmental objectives. In this way, we are supporting a sector that is both more productive and more sustainable, ensuring that farm businesses can remain profitable while continuing to deliver food security, environmental improvement and rural prosperity.
The SAP encompasses a wide range of schemes, some of which provide support and advice to farm businesses e.g. Knowledge and Innovation Schemes through CAFRE. Others serve as data platforms to provide important information to help farm businesses e.g. Soil Nutrient Health Scheme, Bovine Genetics Project and the Carbon Footprinting Project. In addition, others provide payments and capital support through schemes including the Farm Sustainability Payment Scheme, Pilot Protein Crop Scheme, Beef Sustainability Package, Farming with Nature Package, Sustainable Farming Investment Scheme, Farming for the Generations Scheme, Supply Chain Scheme and the Horticulture Pilot Scheme which presents opportunities for farm businesses to diversify into horticulture production.
In that way, public investment is helping to ensure that farmers are rewarded not only for the food they produce, but also for the environmental benefits they deliver, creating a thriving, resilient and environmentally sustainable agricultural sector for the future.
Further information on the SAP can be found on my Department’s website at
https://www.daera-ni.gov.uk/topics/sustainable-agriculture-programme
I hope you find this helpful.
ENDS
