The Woman Farmers’ Capital Scheme (WFCIS) – is set to close to applications on Friday, June 30th, 2023, having opened on Wednesday, June 21st, 2023.
The WFCIS – which offers an enhanced grant aid rate of 60% to eligible applicants – is the tenth and final measure to open under the new five-year €370 million Targeted Agricultural Modernisation Scheme (TAMS 3).
The scheme includes investment items for dairy, beef, sheep, pig, poultry, and tillage enterprises and covers areas of animal welfare and housing, energy efficiency and nutrient management.
Aims
According to the DAFM, the aims of the scheme are to
- Provide an incentive to women farmers to upgrade their agricultural buildings and equipment by providing them with an increased level of support to meet the considerable capital costs associated with the establishment of their enterprises;
- Promote gender equality, employment, growth, generational renewal, social inclusion, and local development in rural areas by supporting the participation of women in farming. According to the DAFM, this new incentive for women will encourage farmers to consider female relatives as a successor or partner in the farm enterprise;
- To improve competitiveness and contribute to the improvement of agricultural incomes.
Who qualifies?
- A person who is more than 18 and less than 67 years of age at the time of submitting the application;
- Is registered as ‘female’ on DAFM’s Corporate Customer Management (CCM) system;
- Possesses adequate occupational skills and competence;
- Has control and is managing an agricultural holding.
What are the reference year requirements?
The applicant must be named on herd number for the holding – the herd must have a BPS application in the year 2022 – and be able to demonstrate management and control of the holding.
Educational requirements
Where the reference year requirements are not met, applicants must have completed one of the courses contained in the scheme’s terms and conditions.
Alternatively, they must complete an equivalent course on or before the date of lodgement of an application for support or, at the latest, within 36 months from the date of issue of department approval to commence works.
Where this deadline for completing the educational requirements is not respected, the DAFM will pay grant aid at the standard rate of 40%.
Eligible investments
A detailed list of the eligible investments is detailed in the scheme’s terms and conditions.
You can find department structural specifications and notices relevant to this scheme on the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine’s website.
Grant aid will only be paid on approved, completed, and eligible expenditures and shall be paid at the rate of 60% up to the applicable maximum investment ceiling of €90,000 per holding.
Multiple applications per tranche are permissible. However, the minimum amount of investment which is eligible for approval under this Scheme is €2,000 per application.
Queries of a technical nature relating to the specifications should be submitted by email to the following email address – [email protected].
Women in farming
The CSO Labour Force Survey 2019 showed that 13% of workers in the primary agriculture, forestry and fishing sector were female.
For 2020, the figure was 15%, the highest since 2010. The CSO’s 2016 Farm Structure Survey recorded 71,700 women working on farms, of which less than one quarter (16,100) were farm holders.
The new CAP Regulations place particular focus on promoting the participation of women in the socio-economic development of rural areas, with special attention to farming.
Member states are required to strengthen their capacity in gender mainstreaming and in the collection of sex disaggregated data.
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