A total of 517 rural businesses have received more than £7m from the 2023 Agri-Environment Climate Scheme (AECS), with all eligible applications approved.

Overall, £27m will be paid over the lifetime of the contracts to applicants, to help support land management activities that will benefit nature and mitigate against climate change.

Farmers can now apply for the 2024/25 AECS funding round, with an expanded range of options to support biodiversity and climate friendly farming activities and land management practices.

More than £4m will also be made available to fund slurry storage and irrigation lagoons in order to improve water quality in rural areas.

Farmers and land managers can now apply for larger funding grants with an additional uplift available to those based in island communities.

This will be the final year that support will be available for slurry storage.

Rural affairs secretary Mairi Gougeon said: “This year all eligible applications to AECS were approved which is a record approval rate. This shows that despite significant financial pressures, farmers and land managers still recognise the very real need to mitigate against both nature loss and climate change.

“I would strongly encourage farmers and crofters to apply for the expanded range of options that the scheme now supports. This approach will give farmers and land managers greater flexibility when it comes to helping improve our landscape to mitigate against nature loss.”

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Chief executive of NatureScot, Francesca Osowska, said: “AECS funding is an important investment in sustainable farming in Scotland, with about 20% of our land being managed for nature and climate benefits under the scheme.”

In the 2023 round of agri-environment and organic applications, there were a total of 579 submitted. Only 18 were withdrawn by the applicant whilst 43 were deemed ineligible and one unsuccessful. The funding committed through AECS has changed in recent years with £31.04m spent in 2021, £25.2m in 2022, and £30.57m in the latest round.