Positive financial support for in-field agroforestry in England

Clive Thomas, our technical manager for farm woodland and agroforestry, on why trees, hedges and in-field agroforestry planting are a good investment.

Feeling bruised by the recent Sustainable Farming Incentive debacle? Wondering how you might get some of your regenerative farming plans implemented? If these plans involve agroforestry, there is still at least one area of government support that's stable and potentially worthwhile.

Agroforestry, when trees are integrated with continued crop growing or livestock grazing, can offer multiple benefits, from providing resilience to drought and extreme weather, to storing carbon and boosting biodiversity. When certain trees species are grown and manged well, they can also diversify farm income through the production of fruit, nuts, timber, fodder, biomass and other marketable products alongside conventional crops or livestock. 

But the reality is growing trees in-field has many up-front costs and requires careful planning, which is why the current potential support in England is so favourable, with planning and capital grants for planting and protection and potentially 10 years of management grants.

Consider the following steps:

Step 1: apply for a PA4 Agroforestry plan capital grant. Worth £1268.08, this can go some way to help fund the development of the plan for approval by the Forestry Commission. You can also access support from the regional FC Agroforestry adviser.

Step 2: develop your plan, carefully considering the design and specification that best meets your objectives. Consider working with an adviser who has agroforestry expertise or develop the plan yourself with the support from the Forestry Commission.

Step 3: once approved, you can automatically apply for capital grants through Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier (CSHT) to implement your plan. Currently available year-round and contingent on an approved design in the PA4, these grants include:

• Plant an agroforestry woodland tree, £5.40/tree

• Plant an agroforestry fruit tree, £17.83/tree

There’s an additional diversity supplement per tree of £1.16 if more than five species are planted.

These grants are expected to cover basic tree protection requirements such as a tree guard or shelter. However, if the agreed PA4 includes added protection, such as fencing or more robust individual tree guards, there are eight capital items you can apply for:

• FG1 (fencing) – £6.34 per metre

• FG2 (sheep netting) – £7.47 per metre

• FG3 (permanent electric fencing) – £5.66 per metre

• FG4 (rabbit fencing supplement) – £5.65 per metre

• FG12 (wooden field gate) – £489.90 per gate

• TE7 (tree guard – large post and rail) – £121.62 per guard

• TE8 (tree guard – small post and rail and wide weld mesh) – £74.74 per guard

• TE19 (tree guard – narrow weld mesh) – £35.67 per guard

Step 4: implement your plan with the necessary expert input and benefit from annual management payments for 10 years depending on the density of trees in your design:

• Very low density (30–50 trees/ha) £248/ha

• Low density (51–130 trees/ha) £385/ha

• Medium density (131–250 trees/ha) £595/ha

• High density (250–400 trees/ha) £849/ha

As with any grant support, there are stipulations and requirements that must be met, including rules about tree spacing and planting design to ensure any schemes supported are clearly in-field and not potentially woodland schemes (which are also currently very well supported through the England Woodland Creation Offer if that is your preference).

Planting trees, especially in-field, although almost always positive, is a BIG step. Fortunately, there is increasing support to help develop the confidence and necessary knowledge.

Find out more

DEFRA: Higher Tier Capital Grants: agroforestry and woodland update