Final call for all unregistered farm businesses to sign up for Soil Nutrient Health Scheme
Date published:
Farm businesses across Northern Ireland are now invited to register for the final year of the Soil Nutrient Health Scheme (SNHS). Online registration will open on Monday 16 June and close on Monday 1 September 2025.
Farm businesses in Zone 4 (Co Antrim), and unregistered farm businesses from Zones 1, 2 and 3 who previously expressed an interest in the Scheme, will be contacted by the Agri-Food Biosciences Institute (AFBI) in advance of registration opening. They will be provided with details about how to sign up online through a simple online process using the Government Gateway platform.
It is important to note that taking part in the Scheme and completing the training is planned to be a conditionality for the new Farm Sustainability Payment from January 2026.
Farm businesses are strongly encouraged to take this final opportunity to join this groundbreaking scheme. The data captured from the SNHS will provide farm businesses with vital information on soil nutrient levels for each field on their farm as well as an estimate of the amount of carbon stored in the soils, hedgerows and trees and nutrient run off risk maps.
Online training by CAFRE will help farms to make use of the results, to enable farms to be more nutrient efficient and profitable.
As the Scheme will generate a lot of important information unique to each farm business, DAERA wants to reassure farmers that their information will be protected under the SNHS Privacy Notice and the General Data Protection Regulations.
Data collected in the SNHS will not be used for any enforcement purposes. It willbe shared only with AFBI for research purposes, and with third party contractors who collect and analyse the soil samples.
Further guidance on the Scheme is available on the DAERA website.
