Defra adds another £53m to farm innovation pot

Agricultural enterprises will be able to apply for additional funding to help turn on-farm business ideas and new technologies in to real world products that can support the industry.

An additional £53m in funding has been made available to support Defra’s Farming Innovation Programme, bringing its total funding pot to £123m for the 2026-27 financial year.

The programme is being run in partnership with Innovate UK and helps successful applicants test new products with on-farm trials and commercial development.

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A Defra spokesman said: “Whether you’re developing a new technology, testing a fresh idea or looking to solve a challenge on your farm, there are a range of innovation funding opportunities available in 2026.”

Several different support grants are being made available including new rounds of the Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (Adopt) programme.

Round eight of the Adopt Full Grant, which awards between £50,000 and £200,000 for on-farm innovation projects and trials lasting up to two years, is currently open and due to close on 29 July.

Two further rounds of funding through the grant are expected later this summer.

Facilitator grants of up to £2,500 are also available to help potential applicants submit a full application.

The latest round of funding for feasibility studies, offering between £200,000 to £500,000 to test whether new technologies work in practice, will be open between 15 July and 9 September.

Further funding opportunities are due to open later this year through Farming Futures initiative, designed to support robotics and automation solutions for agriculture, and technologies that help improve soil and water quality and increase farm profitability.

Ammonia emissions

The SlurryBugs project by EnviroSystems UK is a recent technology that has been supported through the funding schemes.

It is designed to reduce ammonia emissions by improving the nutrient value of slurry, therefore reducing the need for additional fertiliser applications on farm.

Another project involves an arable farmer in the East Midlands who is working with Harper Adams University to see whether a gantry robot can replace conventional large-scale machinery.

Instead of growing single crops across large fields, the system uses one-metre-wide strips containing a mix of cereals, legumes, and other companion crops. 

Larger pools of funding of between £1m and £3m for collaborative research and development projects are set to open in September.

The new funding was confirmed on 24 June during the launch of Defra’s 25-year Farming Roadmap, which plans to make English farming “profitable, productive, sustainable and resilient”.

The Farming Innovation Programme forms part of the government’s wider target to invest £200m in agricultural innovation by 2030.