It’s been a while since we last posted. We’re glad to be back!
Over the past month, we’ve been welcoming Defra’s new ministerial team.
Defra’s ministers have said they don’t want to overturn the applecart and are fully committed to environmental land management schemes (ELM).
We’ve been working with ministers on how we can optimise our schemes and grants so that they produce the right outcomes for farmers, food security and nature recovery in a fair and orderly way.
Right now, we want to maintain the momentum that built over recent months. Record numbers of farmers are now in an ELM scheme. Since publishing this post, we've added a section at the bottom which goes into more detail on take-up.
We’ll provide further details in the coming weeks of our other offers, but the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer is still open and, if you want to apply, you can express your interest online.
In this post, we’ll share a short update on how the rollout of SFI is going. We’ll include links to the new supplementary scheme guidance for the expanded offer, details on endorsed actions and information on capital items too.
Continuing the steady rollout
As part of the controlled rollout of the SFI offer in 2024, we have been accepting expressions of interest and the first SFI agreements for 2024 are now live.
If you want to apply for the expanded SFI offer, the first step is to register your interest with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA).
After you complete an expression of interest, the RPA will invite you to apply.
The expanded SFI offer, designed with the agricultural sector, was announced in May. It comprises 102 actions including more than 20 new actions to support more sustainable food production, with payments for precision farming, agroforestry, a new and expanded offer for upland farmers and more actions for tenants on short-term contracts.
The offer is designed to offer something for all farmers, and covers the range of actions we need to meet our targets for environmental improvement, while also maintaining food production.
New on GOV.UK
Updated SFI scheme guidance
We updated the SFI terms and conditions on GOV.UK to explain how you can access more actions and add more land by taking out a second agreement.
Today, we’ve updated the expanded SFI scheme guidance to include technical changes and more information on supplemental SFI actions.
We’ve also updated some of the wording for the actions published back in May to clarify what farmers and land managers need to do.
We’ve set out what we’ve changed within the action on the ‘Find funding for land or farms’ page – these are normally minor clarifications or additional information to help.
All the changes we’ve made are based on our careful and controlled rollout of the scheme, listening to and acting upon feedback we receive.
Endorsed actions
Some SFI actions target certain priority habitats or species and heritage features. These need to be approved and are known as endorsed actions.
Once you submit an application featuring an endorsed action, Natural England or Historic England, will contact you to confirm your land is suitable for the action for it to be included in your agreement.
The first will be GRH6: Manage priority species-rich grassland. We’ll publish more information on this action and the additional endorsed actions in a separate post soon.
Section 1.2 of the scheme information contains more details on endorsed actions.
Voluntary advice
Alongside the official SFI guidance, we’ve created new voluntary advice for each SFI action which explains good practice.
It offers information and examples on how you might choose to do the actions. It's intended to give reassurance if you're unsure how to undertake an action, or if you're concerned you might do the wrong thing.
This guidance is optional and something that farmers asked us to provide. It is there to help. You don’t have to follow it. It’s part of our overall approach to making SFI less prescriptive than previous schemes.
You can find the voluntary advice under each action on GOV.UK's Find funding for land or farms page.
Capital items
The agri-environment capital grants offer has been available since January.
Today, we added a range of new capital items to the existing offer.
- AF1: Plant an agroforestry woodland tree
- AF2: Plant an agroforestry fruit tree
- AF3: Supplement: Species diversity bonus
- TE6: Tree guard (tube and mesh)
- TE7: Tree guard (wood post and rail)
- TE8: Tree guard (wood post and wire)
- PA4: Agroforestry plan
- PA5: Moorland mapping plan
This means that in total, there are now 105 capital items (and 5 plans) available through the different grants.
For example, we’ve introduced new capital items to support the SFI agroforestry actions to help protect trees while they are established and grant funding is available for items including tree guards.
A new moorland mapping plan supports better planning to manage environmental features on moorland.
You can access these capital grants as a standalone grant, or to help you carry out the actions in your SFI agreement.
Colleagues at the Forestry Commission will publish an agroforestry post on their blog soon.
Take-up: a closer look
As of 5 August 2024, just under 5,300 farmers and land managers expressed an interest (EOI) to apply for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer since May and we continue to receive EOIs regularly. The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is steadily working through EOI submissions and applicants can expect to hear from them soon.
Of those whom we have invited to apply, over 600 applications have been received with 70 agreements offered to date. Agreements start on the 1st of the month after offers have been accepted, meaning the first agreements went live on 1 August. We’ll provide further details on the rollout in due course.
The above relates to the expanded SFI offer only. Record numbers of agri-environment agreements are now in place. As of 16 July, there were over 65,400 live agreements. Previously, the largest number of live agreements was 59,200 in 2010.
Stay up to date
We will confirm plans for Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier and our broader approach to environmental land management in due course.
Stay up to date through our blog posts. In the next few weeks, we'll confirm our plans for agricultural shows and auction marts. You can your questions to us in the comments section below or at a webinar. We'll publish details of upcoming webinars here on the blog.
15 comments
Comment by Paul posted on
'We’ve also updated some of the wording for the actions published back in May'
Rather than having to go through each of the 100+ options to see whether or not it's been updated, is there a summary of what's changed ?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hello Paul, thanks for getting in touch. The PDF includes a summary of updates at the end of each action:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/66ad3481fc8e12ac3edb0a27/SFI-2024-actions-v1.1-print-version.pdf.
We shared your comment with the SFI team and they will write a post so the changes and rationale behind the changes to actions are clearer.
Thanks,
The Team
Comment by sarah sadler posted on
I've am trying to reinstate a very old cider orchard on 2 hectares on my farm in an AONB. It's an expensive undertaking and not a profitable one so I do not have the spare funds without support. It used to be part of a much larger orchard. The farm across the road has support to do this as he's in Higher Tier but every time I think i'm near, something else pops up to thwart an application. Today it was I can't apply to do this as agroforestry as my land is in an AONB which is therefore too sensitive. I have one remaining solitary veteran apple tree and it very much looks like it's going to stay that way.
Comment by Julia posted on
You could try a Farming in Protected Landscapes grant?
Comment by Jennifer Holmes posted on
Absolutely nothing about the growing of food crops or rearing animal. 🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Jennifer,
As the post mentions, the expanded SFI offer, announced in May comprises 102 actions. More than 20 actions were added that support more sustainable food production.
The Animal Health and Welfare Pathway (not mentioned in this post) supports the continual improvement in farm animal health and welfare. It is a partnership with farmers, vets, the wider industry and the supply chain. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/animal-health-and-welfare-pathway/animal-health-and-welfare-pathway
Through the Pathway, we're offering grants to support laying hens: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/laying-hen-housing-for-health-and-welfare-grant-round-1. Farmers can also apply for an Annual Health and Welfare Review: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/funding-to-improve-animal-health-and-welfare-guidance-for-farmers-and-vets (an annual vet visit paid for by the government).
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by ian. posted on
Stop solar panels on farm land put them on warehouse roofs
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Ian,
Thanks for getting in touch. We offered grant funding for solar panels through the Improving Farm Productivity grant - we stipulated that the solar panels should be installed on farm buildings and that we would not fund ground based solar panels.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Alan Granger posted on
Hi Sarah, will the funding for roof mounted solar be repeated shortly? We missed the deadline this year and have just received the DNO agreement.
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Alan,
Any updates on grant schemes will be posted on the blog - I'm very sorry I can't be more specific.
Best wishes,
Sarah
Comment by Simon posted on
Is there any more information available on the high or very high density agroforestry options? If not, when is this likely to be available please?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Simon,
Please keep an eye on the blog for further updates on medium and high agroforestry densities. Current actions available are SFI actions, AGF1 and AGF2 for low stocking densities. More info can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/find-funding-for-land-or-farms?areas_of_interest%5B%5D=agroforestry
We’ve also introduced new capital items to support the SFI agroforestry actions to help protect trees while they are established and grant funding is available for items including tree guards, the list of capital grants and the guidance for applicants can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/capital-grants-2024
Colleagues at the Forestry Commission will publish an agroforestry post on their blog soon which you can subscribe to here: https://forestrycommission.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Hope that helps,
The Team
Comment by Stuart posted on
I am aware of a pal who expressed an interest last Friday and received an invite this Monday whilst another is still awaiting an invite following an expression made in June. The former does not have an existing SFI agreement whilst the latter has a SFI23. This is clearly not first come first served so how are invites being prioritised and is there an issue/delay for those already with a SFI23? Thank you
Comment by Amandeep Kaur Purewal posted on
Do you have a breakdown of the latest SFI uptake data (released on 8 August) in terms of the % of farmland entered into the actions which require land?
Similar to how it was presented in a table in an earlier blog post on 3 May 2024?
Comment by Sarah Stewart posted on
Hi Amandeep,
SFI take up data can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/annual-countryside-stewardship-and-environmental-stewardship-summary-data
Best wishes,
Sarah