A revamped Sustainable Farming Incentive will include reduced payments for three key options when it launches this summer.
Lower payments will be made for the three most popular actions – herbal leys, winter bird food and legume fallow, Defra secretary Emma Reynolds told last month’s NFU annual conference in Birmingham.
Defra wants farmers to choose a wider range of actions on the most productive farmland. In a further move, enhanced overwinter stubble will be added to the list of actions that in combination cannot be used on more than 25% of land.
Previous spending patterns show most funding going to a small number of actions and farms, with 90% going towards fewer than 40 of the 102 actions available and a quarter of funding going to just 4% of farms. The government says this is unfair.
New offer
The new offer will be simpler and fairer, says Defra. Farmers will be able to choose from 71 actions, down from 102 last year. Applicants will limited to one single SFI agreement capped at £100,000 per year.
Ms Reynolds said: “We have weeded out those that were duplicative or weren’t delivering enough for food production or the environment – and judging by the low uptake, those which weren’t working for you either.”
With around 97% of agreements already within the £100,000 limit, the new cap would help ensure funding was shared more fairly and reached more small and medium sized farms, she added.
Applications
Applications will open in June for farms under 50ha and those without an existing Environmental Land Management (ELM) agreement. A second application window will open to all farmers in September, with further details to follow.
Speaking earlier, NFU president Tom Bradshaw suggested the old SFI was overly bureaucratic and outdated. To keep delivering for the environment, farms must be profitable and resilient, with a clear strategy from government.
“We cannot have the goalposts constantly moving – the rug endlessly pulled from under our feet,” Mr Badshaw told the conference. “Farming is a long-term investment, measured in years, even decades, not months Clarity is absolutely essential for confidence. Transparency around the farming budget is crucial to this. Without transparency, farmers and growers are unable to plan for the future.”
What is changing
Higher payments for some moorland actions:
UPL1: Moderate livestock grazing: £35/ha (was £20/ha)
UPL2: Low livestock grazing: £89/ha (was £53/ha)
UPL3: Limited livestock grazing: £111/ha (was £66/ha)
UPL8: Shepherding livestock (remove stock for at least 4 months): £74/ha (was £43/ha)
UPL10: Shepherding livestock (remove stock for at least 8 months): £102/ha (was £48/ha)
Lower payments for:
CSAM3: Herbal leys: £382/ha (was £224/ha)
CAHL2: Winter bird food: £853/ha (was £648/ha)
CNUM3: Legume fallow: £593/ha (was £532/ha)
Defra says rates are being reduced because it was previously too attractive to take highly productive land out of food production. It says they are being recalibrated to reflect current margins and keep more land in production.
Other changes
• Enhanced overwinter stubble will be added to list of 10 actions which together cannot cover more than 25% of the farm area.
This is to prevent too much land being taken out of production.
• There will be a single cap which means no SFI26 agreement can be worth more than £100,000 per year.
This is so funding can be shared across more farms.
• Each farm business can have only one SFI26 agreement.
This rule – and the agreement value cap – will help ensure Defra can afford to offer agreements to more farmers.
• Actions with a five-year duration will become three-year actions.
This aims to make these actions more accessible for short-term tenant farmers.
For full details, visit bit.ly/SFI2026