Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) Scheme Expands and Improves for 2024

The government has unveiled a range of new actions and a streamlined application process for SFI 2024.

A controlled rollout of SFI has now started, with farmers in England invited to submit expressions of interest to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). Applications will be open from the 22nd July 2024 for eligible applicants.

The announcement comes alongside the commitment made at the Oxford Farming Conference in January to increase payment rates by an average of 10% for SFI and Countryside Stewardship agreements, introducing premium payments for actions that achieve the greatest environmental benefits.

Under the newly announced expanded SFI offer, farmers will be able to apply to choose from 102 actions with a wide range of payments. Aiming to reduce input costs and boost yields.

Updates include:

• Over 20 new options to support more sustainable food production, with payments for precision farming and agroforestry, plus actions to support flood preparedness, climate change resilience and challenging weather conditions.
• New and improved offer for upland farmers.
• Reduction from five-year actions to three-year actions, improving accessibility to tenant farmers on short term contracts.

New options include:

• PRF1: Variable Rate Application of Nutrients £27/ha. This is rotational but must be all nutrients including organic manures, i.e. using a variable rate file or crop sensor.

• SOH1: No-Till Farming £73/ha. Non-rotational, but strictly no conventional or shallow cultivation, only stubble rake/straw harrow with rear facing tines. Low disturbance subsoiling can be done where justified e.g. wet weather at harvest.

• SOH3: Summer Cover Crop £163/ha. Sow June-August. Cannot be harvested or grazed (except for destruction). Destroy no less than two weeks before sowing cashcrops.

• WBD1: Management of Ditches £4/100m. Cut vegetation no more than 50% per year, clean out ditch no more than one year in three.

• AGF2: Maintain Low Density Agroforestry £385/ha. Can be used on other Environmental Land Management (ELM) options e.g. herbal ley.

• BND1: Maintain Dry Stone Walls £27/100m (Both Sides). The key requirement to keep them in good repair.

All 23 actions in the current SFI 2023 offer are also being rolled over, including actions for soils, nutrient management, hedgerows, buffer strips and farmland wildlife. Select actions have been updated since they were launched in 2023 to reflect feedback from the farming industry and others feature subtle differences, these include:

• CNUM3: Legume Fallow £593/ha. If you are establishing in year one the option is now ‘static’ and must stay in the same place for the three years. If you are looking for a spring sowing and removal in the same year, then SOH2 or 3 (summer cover crops) are recommended.

• CSAM3: Herbal Ley £382/ha. This is also static if establishing in year one, and the aims of the action now include producing flowering plants from late spring and during summer months.

Please note, if you are already entered into the above options they will remain rotational within your agreement.

More than 50 simplified actions from Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier will be merged into SFI to streamline the application process. Bringing the schemes into one place, with one name, means farmers can access the best of both offers; the flexibility of the SFI and the breadth, scale and ambition of Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier, with less paperwork! The government has also launched a new digital tool known as ‘Find Funding for Land or Farms’ to signpost customers toward the funding that is available to them.

For those in an existing Higher Level Stewardship or Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier, from September 2024 there will be the mechanism to transfer into an SFI or Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. There will be further developments to come this Summer in regard to new Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier applications and new ‘premium payment’ actions. Read the latest Defra update which includes the new actions (Annex B) here: SFI scheme information: expanded offer for 2024 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

To find out more about the Sustainable Farming Incentive and the opportunities that it offers, please contact:

Megan Rogers (Kettering) on 07747 625716 email megan.rogers@berrys.uk.com

Tom Harris (Towcester) on 07747 567910 email tom.harris@berrys.uk.com

Vicky Price (Hereford) on 07789 986904 email vicky.price@berrys.uk.com

Maisie Evans (Shrewsbury) on 07825 082540 email maisie.evans@berrys.uk.com