Farmers in North York Moors National Park urged to apply for funding for farm projects

Grants can range between £100 and £250,000 and projects that will be considered should come under one, or more, of four themes – climate, nature, people, place.

Specifically, they would support activity that benefits nature recovery, mitigates the impacts of climate change, provides opportunities for people to discover, enjoy and understand the landscape and its cultural heritage, or supports nature-friendly, sustainable farm businesses.

In the North York Moors particularly priorities have been identified as being a reflective landscape, nature and biodiversity and being a place that benefits the nation’s health and well-being.

At a local group meeting of the Whitby Dairy Discussion Group on Monday night, Rebecca Thompson, head of farming and land management at the North York Moors National Park Authority, met with farmers to explain th e programme, which is Defra funded and started in July last year.

She said: “These are really well aligned to farming in protected landscapes. When you have a project to support these priorities, they are so well-aligned you would be really hard-pressed not to be able to meet these.”

"Defra has recognised the additional challenges that farms in Protected Landscapes and Areas of National Beauty are facing coming through COVID, and extra pressures that were put on places like this, and farms in particular when the country was released from lockdown.”

Some of the projects within the North York Moors National Park that have recently been awarded grants include £11,523 for rainwater harvesting tanks in Sandsend Valley in North Yorkshire to fit in with improving water quality and reducing localised flooding; a grant of £24,591 towards an £85,988 project to separate slurry using bags which was then analysed and found to be producing enough nutrients and nitrogen equivalent to 25,000 tonnes of fertiliser that would have cost £16,000; and in Castleton a grant of £7,295 was made towards an £8,363 project to plant native broadleaf trees in order to increase the wildlife corridor with volunteers from Botton Village, a supported environment for adults with learning disabilities, helping with the planting.

Ms Thompson added: “The more innovative the project, or those in collaboration with a group or other farmers will score more highly. That said we are going into hedge planting and tree planting season so if applications are coming in these will sail through the process.

"We need to bear in mind that time moves too quickly and 2024 will come around pretty quickly for big projects and things that need planning permission.”