Northern Ireland’s farm businesses are set to benefit from an additional £15.5 million of BPS funding to help farmers with the rising cost of inputs.
NI's agriculture minister Edwin Poots announced the news at a reception at the Balmoral Show on Wednesday (22 September).
Mr Poots said the supplement to the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) budget would be paid out to farmers in October.
Each farm business will see the value of their payments increase by 6.29%, or approximately £800, he said.
"This will be a welcome boost and is vitally important given the ongoing increases in the cost of farm inputs," Minister Poots added.
The boost comes on top of a permanent 4.3% uplift in BPS payments worth £8m, which the Minister announced last year.
The Ulster Farmers' Union (UFU) said the new £15.5m fund injection would provide a 'major boost to farmers across Northern Ireland'.
The union's president Victor Chestnutt said: “Farmers have endured various challenges over the last eighteen months particularly with the ongoing rise of input costs.
"The decision taken by the DAERA Minister to provide this extra support will be a much needed and major boost, helping to sustain family farm businesses across NI.
"We look forward to it being paid out to farmers next month so they can benefit.”
