Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Martin Heydon has announced the start of payments totalling €29.1 million under the new National Tillage Sustainability Support Scheme.

The money is being paid to 8,554 beneficiaries. As an average, it works out to some €3,400 per applicant.

Payments are set to be visible in farmers’ bank accounts in the coming days, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine said.

Minister Heydon commented: “In recognition of the important role the tillage sector contributes to the sustainability of the agri-food sector as a whole and the significant challenges faced by the sector, this payment is a vital injection at a critical time”.

As part of Budget 2025, funding of €30 million was allocated to "ensure continued sustainability of the sector" and allow for a degressive rate of payment to applicants who declared cereal and oilseed rape crops on their 2025 Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and other area-based applications.

The minister said: "I secured this funding to help underpin the sector and boost confidence by providing farmers with the necessary financial supports to assist them in the season ahead.

"The tillage sector is extremely important to this government, and it is a sector we want to see grow in the years ahead," he added.

According to Minister Heydon, the payment announced today (Monday, March 23) "demonstrate the government’s commitment to supporting the sector".

He said the payments advance the commitment set out in the Programme for Government, as well as a key recommendation in the Food Vision Tillage Group Report, regarding the "importance of delivering significant supports for the tillage sector".

National Tillage Sustainability Support Scheme

The National Tillage Sustainability Support Scheme was first unveiled by the minister on February 24.

The €30 million allocated for it was part of a wider pot of €50 million for the tillage sector allocated in Budget 2026.

That €50 million also covers the Protein Aid Scheme and the Straw Incorporation Measure (SIM).

Speaking last month when the scheme opened, Minister Heydon said: "Following two particularly difficult years in 2023 and 2024, and more recently a challenging market situation with downward price pressure internationally, this, along with high costs of production, have placed considerable strain on growers’ margins.”

The National Tillage Sustainability Support Scheme offered tillage farmers between €50/ha and €110/ha, depending on how much land under tillage they had, with farmers with smaller tillage areas getting higher rates of payment.