29 Jul Best Business Loans and Farm Grants in the UK 

Managing a farm business is no easy task. It needs meticulous planning, and with the pandemic and lockdowns, it certainly hasn’t been easy either. As an owner of a farm business, you might need to upgrade your equipment, improve the energy efficiency, manage wages and livestock or maybe even focus on researching for new ways of sustainable farming. So, if you are looking for effective and best business loans for your farm, we recommend the UK Government’s farm grants that assist farmers across the country.  

These farm grants and funding schemes are aimed at supporting sustainable farming, innovation, and business development, trade and market development. It is to be noted that every farm loan or grant is offered by a different agency has different criteria for how the loan has to be used. Basically, most of the programmes need a business plan before you apply.  

Take a look at some of them:

1.Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE): Offering loan for projects that improve agriculture and environment as well as the rural life, the RDPE is a well-known programme. Farmers applying for this must note that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have different rural development schemes under this.

2.Countryside Productivity Scheme: This grant offers funding for projects in England that focus on improving productivity in farming and forestry and create employment and growth in the rural economy.

3.Basic Payment Scheme (BPS): The BPS is the largest of the rural grants for the farming industry. Farmers can apply once a year – between March to May. The payments under this scheme are released in December.

4.RDPE Growth Programme: Under this programme, grants are given for business development, rural tourism infrastructure, and food processing. These loans are given for projects in England that focus on creating employment and growth in the rural economy.

 You can also look at other government funding programmes for farmers to compare loans on the government website.