The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has issued its first update on the status of applications made under tranche 11 of the Targeted Agriculture Modernisation Schemes (TAMS 3).

TAMS 3 provides grants to farmers to build and/or improve a specified range of farm buildings and equipment on their holding.

Due to the level of demand for TAMS 3, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Martin Heydon previously announced that ranking and selection (RASS) would be applied in recent tranches because of "overall budgetary constraints".

Over 59,000 applications were received across the first ten tranches, compared to 19,347 applications received over the equivalent period under TAMS 2.

Under the ranking and selection system priority is being given to farm safety and nutrient storage applications.

TAMS

The department has confirmed that 4,452 applications were submitted by farmers for tranche 11 by the closing date of March 6.

Of that total, 3,070 applications have been selected so far through ranking and selection.

Over 2,000 applications made under the Animal Welfare Nutrient Storage Scheme (AWNSS) and the Farm Safety Capital Investment Scheme (FSCIS) have been selected through RASS.

Up to July 20, 1,795 tranche 11 applications had been approved, with a further 1,275 in progress.

The following table provides an update on the status of tranche 11 applications across the various TAMS schemes:

The department has also confirmed that 5,110 (65%) out of 7,905 applications submitted under tranche 10 of TAMS 3 have been approved.

6,020 applications in this tranche have been selected through RASS, with 910 applications still to be processed by officials.

4,186 approvals have been issued under tranche 9 which received 6,122 applications.

4,469 applications were selected under RASS in this round with 283 applications in progress.