Rural Payments and Services

Who can apply

You can apply if your agricultural business:

a) is registered with Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (SGRPID) and has an active Business Reference Number (BRN);

b) submitted a Single Application Form (SAF) by 15 May 2026 and claimed support from at least one of the following schemes:

• Basic Payment Scheme (BPS),
• Less Favoured Area Support Scheme (LFASS),
• Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS),
• Scottish Upland Sheep Support Scheme (SUSSS),
• Agri Environment Climate Scheme (AECS) – annual recurrent options,
• Forestry Grant Scheme (FGS) – annual maintenance and management grants,
• Rural Development Contracts - Rural Priorities Scheme (RPS) – annual recurrent options;

c) is actively undertaking agricultural activity; and

d) meets any additional eligibility requirements that apply to the agricultural support claimed on your 2026 SAF.

Who cannot apply

You cannot apply if your business:

• is a public body; or
• is an equine business.

Your application must relate solely to the applicant business.

Agricultural activity

To be eligible for Future Farming Investment Scheme (FFIS) 2026, your business must be actively undertaking agricultural activity.

For the purposes of FFIS, a farmer is a natural or legal person, or a group of natural or legal persons, whose agricultural holding is situated in Scotland. Your business may also have land elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

Agricultural activity includes:

• the production, rearing or growing of agricultural products;
• harvesting;
• milking;
• breeding animals; and
• keeping animals for farming purposes.

Your business must be actively undertaking agricultural activity. Where agricultural land is declared on your SAF, that land must be used by your business for agricultural activity.

A business that lets all of its land to others and does not itself undertake agricultural activity is not eligible for FFIS support.

Minimum agricultural area

If the support you claimed in 2026 required land to be declared on your Single Application Form (SAF), you must have declared at least 3 hectares of eligible agricultural land.

For this purpose, eligible agricultural land is agricultural land declared on the SAF by the business applying for FFIS support and used by that business for agricultural activity.

Eligible agricultural land includes:

• arable land;
• permanent pasture; and
• permanent crops.

Common grazing shares do not count towards the 3-hectare minimum.

If the only support you claimed in 2026 was Scottish Suckler Beef Support Scheme (SSBSS), the 3-hectare minimum does not apply, but you must still meet the requirements set out in Agricultural Activity section.

Whole Farm Plan requirements

If you claimed the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in 2026, you must meet the Whole Farm Plan requirement. You must have completed and declared at least two qualifying Whole Farm Plan (WFP) audits or plans on your SAF submitted by 15 May 2026.

If you did not claim BPS but submitted a SAF to claim other agricultural support, you can still apply for FFIS. If your application is successful, you must complete at least two qualifying WFP audits or plans before submitting your FFIS evidence.

The Whole Farm Plan consists of:

• Animal Health and Welfare Plan;
• Biodiversity Audit;
• Carbon Audit;
• Integrated Pest Management Plan; and
• Soil Analysis.

For BPS claimants:

• Soil Analysis, Biodiversity Audit and Carbon Audit must have been prepared between 15 May 2021 and 15 May 2026 inclusive; and
• Animal Health and Welfare Plans and Integrated Pest Management Plans must have been prepared between 15 May 2025 and 15 May 2026 inclusive.

An audit or plan outside the relevant period or prepared after 15 May 2026 will not count towards the requirement. You must have at least two different qualifying Whole Farm Plan elements that meet all the relevant requirements. If you do not, you are not eligible for FFIS support.

You may use any two qualifying WFP audits or plans to meet this requirement.

If your application is successful, you must provide evidence of the two audits or plans as set out in the Providing evidence of investment section.

Further information about the Whole Farm Plan and the requirements for each audit or plan is available in the Whole Farm Plan guidance.

Before applying, you should check that each audit or plan meets the relevant Whole Farm Plan requirement, including the preparation dates and minimum standards. It is not enough to simply have a document describing the qualifying audits or plans.

If the evidence you provide does not show that you had at least two valid qualifying Whole Farm Plan elements within the required periods, you were not eligible for FFIS support. Any grant paid will be recovered.

Eligibility and verification

Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (SGRPID) will verify your eligibility using information declared on your 2026 Single Application Form (SAF) and information held in SGRPID business, land, livestock and other relevant records.

SGRPID may ask you to provide additional information or evidence where this is required to verify your eligibility.

Applications that do not meet all eligibility requirements, or where eligibility cannot be verified, will not be progressed.

Important: You must meet all eligibility requirements at the point of application, except where this guidance specifically allows a requirement to be met later.