Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Department’s press release entitled Powering the farms of the future with £50 million tech investment, published on 14 April 2026, what her planned timeline is for the roll-out of new agri-tech tools to farms.

Defra is derisking decisions on new technologies through the Farming Equipment and Technology Fund, which can aid the affordability of agri-tech tools. Grants are available to a range of farms, including small and medium farms. The final round opened on 17 March with grants of up to £25,000 available for each of three themes: equipment to boost farm productivity, slurry management, and animal health and welfare. Going forward, the Government wishes to build on what has worked well across all its grant schemes with the aim of bringing the strongest elements together from 2027. As part of this work, the Government will look at the specific types of equipment and technology that could be included.

The Accelerating Development of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) fund is part of the Farming Innovation Programme with £50 million of funding announced to date. This fund is focussed on farmer-led, smaller-scale innovation grants and supports trialling new technology and methods for adoption on farms.

Through the Farming Innovation Programme our investment in the research and development pipeline of innovative technology from concept to deployment aims to derisk adoption and enable wider take up, lowering costs for farmers and growers. As such, technologies developed within the Farming Innovation Programme will be available for use by small farmers.