Written question WQ82758

The Welsh Government is committed to supporting all businesses in Wales.

Business Wales and Farming Connect support farm businesses to become more efficient, profitable and resilient. Support is tailored according to customer need and the different regions of Wales. By means of example, Farming Connect have held a series of ‘Living off 10 Acres’ events across Wales, where individuals share ideas on how to build a profitable enterprise off a few acres of land and by providing inspiration from guest speakers about examples of businesses that have established in a small area.

In addition, support provided through the Farm Business Grant (FBG) enables farmers to make small investments in equipment and new technology to enable their business to improve its technical and financial performance. This support is suitable to farms of all sizes and the minimum grant of £3k enables applicants to be supported in increments up to the maximum £12k. A maximum turnover limit of £1.0m is a condition of FBG; although this would not impact small-scale farms, the limit does ensure the available budget is focused towards the smaller scale enterprises.

The Glastir Small Grant scheme is also available to support on-farm environmental improvements. This scheme is available to all with no minimum grant threshold, which enables small-scale enterprises to apply and complete environmental improvements appropriate to their scale. Accessing these schemes does require applicants to have a minimum of 3ha of eligible agricultural land or be able to demonstrate over 550 standard labour hours within the business which currently excludes some very small enterprises.

As we transition from support schemes funded through the Rural Development Programme into domestically funded schemes, we will continue to ensure support is available to a wide range of farm businesses and the support offer is appropriate to the individual business.