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On 10 December Defra published . These should be available to apply for from summer 2025.
The new was published at the same time. A pre-application period for priority applicants will start in January. Plans for a third round of Landscape Recovery will be announced in due course.
At the end of November, Defra said its standalone capital grants would temporarily close while a review was undertaken.
If you're applying for SFI or are in the process of applying, we've outlined the key reminders from the RPA to be aware of.
Key resources
- The Defra handbook for the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme can be found at: .
- Defra has launched a to help farmers search through the actions.
- Watch the to help you through the application process.
- Defra has published an to help calculate your eligible area across multiple agreements.
Timeline for applications
SFI applications will be through the rural payments service online. The roll out of common land agreements may take longer due to their complexity.
After you鈥檝e created a new SFI application, you have 60 days to complete and submit it. If you have not submitted it in this timeframe RPA will withdraw it and you will need to start a new application.
The SFI offer and payments
You have free choice of which actions you take and how much you include in your SFI agreement. Some actions do have area constraints. Most actions can be on part of the field. A few, such as soil assessment and testing, are a whole field. Where the action is 鈥榳hole field鈥�, this is the available area of the field after incompatible areas have been removed.听
For each of the SFI actions, there are eligibility requirements, payment rates, and instructions on what you must or must not do. Each action contains advice to help you deliver the actions.
They are written in a way to be flexible for your farm, allowing you to use appropriate seed mixes for your soil, for example. The actions outline other actions that can be stacked on the same area; when you apply, the online system should identify this for you.
Additional payments
In addition to being paid for the SFI actions there is a management payment. The first-year payment, for agreements starting by March 2025, will be 拢40/ha for the first 50ha entered into agreement. After the first year, this will reduce to 拢20/ha. This is based on option area. There is only one payment per SBI. Your first SFI agreement will be used to calculate the payment.听
For common land (involving 2 or more people) these is an additional payment of 拢7/ha
Premium payments
Premium payments are being introduced. These are to encourage uptake of action with the biggest environmental impact or combinations of actions that deliver benefits at scale.
In 2024, 21 priority actions will get premium payments. For example, 拢765 per hectare for nesting plots for lapwing, and 拢1,242 per hectare for connecting river and floodplain habitat.
The actions include lowland peat, moorland grazing, and agroforestry. Most of these premium payment actions are new. Going forward the NFU expects premium payments to be apply to more actions or combinations of actions.
Area limits
Defra has limited the combined area of ten actions to 25% of the farmed land. This limit is applied across all SFI agreements attached to the holding that started from 26 March.
The actions limited are:
- CIPM2: Flower-rich grass margins, blocks, or in-field strips
- CAHL1: Pollen and nectar flower mix
- CAHL2: Winter bird food on arable and horticultural land
- CAHL3: Grassy field corners or blocks
- CIGL1: Take improved grassland field corners or blocks out of management
- CIGL2: Winter bird food on improved grassland
- WBD3: In-field grass strips
- AHW1: Bumblebird mix
- AHW9: Unharvested cereal headland
- AHW11: Cultivated areas for arable plants
An additional four actions are being kept under review and may be added to the list at a future date. These are:
- AHW3: Beetle banks
- AHW5: Nesting plots for lapwing
- AHW12: Manage woodland edges on arable land
- SCR1: Create scrub and open habitat mosaics
Defra has published an to help calculate your eligible area across multiple agreements.
Eligibility
You need to have management control of the land to deliver the actions to be eligible for SFI.
Then there are eligibility requirements for the SFI actions. Broadly, these require the land to be recorded on Rural Payments with the appropriate cover. For example, for SFI arable actions, the field needs to have arable crops recorded. In addition, you need to have management control to be able to deliver the required actions.
Tenants
Tenants can apply for SFI without seeking their landlord鈥檚 consent (subject to the terms of their tenancy agreement). The tenant needs to be confident that they will have management control for the three-year term of the SFI agreement.
Tenants on short-term rolling tenancy agreements can enter SFI, provided they expect to have management control for three years. Defra has a more lenient penalty regime which means if land has to be removed in year two, due to issues outside of your control, it will not lead to penalties. At most, you may need to repay monies received for the year in question.
Common land and shared grazing
Areas of common land or shared grazing will have their own agreement. The common will need to have its own SBI and meet the basic eligibility requirements. In addition, it will need to be set up as a single entity which has legal arrangements in place to manage the agreement, and have its own bank account.
There is a payment of 拢7/ha where the common involves two or more people.
Agreement management
The length of the agreement will mirror the longest action included (usually 3 or 5 years). Some actions could be shorter than the length of the agreement. Agreements are managed online through the Rural Payments service, and there is a rolling application window. Agreements will start on 1st of the month. RPA support will be available for applicants who are not online.
Payments will be made quarterly, starting in the fourth month after your agreement starts. This will be for a quarter of the annual value of the agreement.听
You will be required to complete an annual declaration confirming that you have completed the actions. This declaration will be needed to release the final quarterly payment for the year.
Once an agreement has started, it will not be possible to add new actions to that agreement. If you have rotational actions in your agreement, you can increase or decrease the area each year (see below). Removal of land or actions will not normally be allowed.
It is possible to have multiple SFI agreements on the same area of ground, provided the actions are compatible. This allows you to increase SFI actions over time.
It is not possible to transfer the agreement to another person. If you do need to end your agreement on an area of ground Defra may ask for repayments. There will be no penalties applied to the remainder of the agreement.
Crop rotations
Within SFI some actions can be rotated. SFI does provide flexibility to vary the area claimed for year on year.
In the second and third years of your agreement you can enter a larger area than you entered into agreement for. Alternatively you can decrease the area claimed, as long as it is at least 50% of the first year area. So, if your agreement has 10ha in year one for a rotational action, in year two that area could be 5ha and in year three it could be increased to 11ha.
Monitoring and compliance
Each SFI action has its own record keeping requirements. For example, you will need to create and maintain a soil management plan for the first of the soils actions as well as keeping your soil test results.
Defra says it wants to use different methods to assess agreement delivery, including remote sensing. The scheme moves away from inspectors to field officers. If they find something is not as it should be they have a role of being more supportive and advising how to improve delivery. Defra will not withhold payments on suspicion of any breach.
Where a breach is found, Defra can seek repayments. However, in most cases, Defra will only apply a reclaim to the area of the breach and it could be a one-year repayment, rather than multiple years.
Endorsed actions
Currently, species rich grassland (GHR6) is the only SFI action that needs endorsement from Natural England to access it. In summer 2025 more endorsed SFI actions for farmland wildlife and habitats on grassland, heritage, wood pasture, traditional orchards, coastal habitats and waterbodies will be introduced. These have been .
To secure endorsement you submit your SFI application, then Natural England or Historic England will contact you. The SFI agreement will not be offered until the endorsement is secured. To prevent delays to other SFI actions you can choose to apply separately for SFI actions which do not require endorsement.
Capital item applications and offers
As of 27 November, Defra has released a new statement giving an update on capital grants. A Defra spokesperson said: 鈥淎s a result of unprecedented demand some of the capital grants offer for farmers will temporarily close to new applications.
鈥淎greements that have already been signed will be met, with further funding prioritised to help build a sustainable farming sector.鈥�
Defra has said some capital grants will temporarily close 鈥� a total of 76 grant items.
For those who have applied already, if an application relates to the grants that are temporarily withdrawn, it will be on hold for now. You will be contacted in early 2025 with information about what happens next.
The RPA has said it will continue to accept new applications in this period for:鈥��
- , which help protect tree health against devastating plant pests and diseases.
- to help support the development of new CS Higher Tier agreements.
- and , help support delivery of high value environmental benefits, such as re-wetting peat.
皇家华人will publish more detail on this as it becomes available.
For more information, visit: .
SSSIs and other regulations
It is your responsibility to make sure the relevant consents are in place. Therefore, if you have land you wish to include with an SSSI or a scheduled monument, you need to have consents from Natural England or Historic England respectively.
Some SFI actions cannot be carried out on land containing a SSSI, historic or archaeological features. An SFI HEFER (Historic Environment Farmed Environment Record) will be required for land to be included where there are historic or archaeological features. This is available online through a HEFER portal.
Where SSSI consent is required for moorland actions, (UPL1-10) or low input grassland (CLIG3), Natural England will ask for additional information, stocking information and how you will manage the land. It is advisable to talk to Natural England or an expert adviser prior to applying for consent.
Compatibility with other schemes
You can have different schemes on the same parcel of land provided you are not being paid for the same action twice (known as double funding).听
The scheme rules set out which SFI action is compatible with Countryside Stewardship or Environmental Stewardship options and SFI pilot standards, allowing them to be co-located. The Rural Payments service application system will calculate the available area in each for SFI action, removing areas with incompatible options or actions.
Land attracting private finance, such as carbon or natural flood management payments, can be entered into SFI. Defra will keep this under review.