The new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer will launch this year. It will continue to support sustainable farming in England and help encourage growth.
In response to feedback, we are improving the new SFI offer to:
- make it simpler and more focused
- improve fairness and accessibility
- provide certainty and transparency
These changes will deliver an SFI that is simpler and fairer, so farmers can plan with confidence.
We will work with stakeholders now to get these changes right before the new SFI offer launches, and we will publish full scheme details before the first application window opens.
Simplicity and focus
To make the new SFI offer simpler and more focused, we are streamlining it by reducing the number of actions.
There will still be a broad offer to suit different types of farms and plenty of choice, with greater emphasis on actions that support sustainable food production.
This will include:
- limiting how much land can be put into actions that take land out of production. Previously, there were 10 ‘limited area’ actions in SFI. We are exploring whether more actions should be limited to a small proportion of the farm so they work alongside food production
- reviewing payment rates for actions that take land out of production where uptake has been particularly high.
Fairness and accessibility
We want as many farmers as possible to benefit from SFI. This will help us achieve the government’s target of doubling the number of farms providing sufficient year-round resources for farm wildlife by December 2030, compared with 2025.
We are considering ways to do this and will publish further details before we launch the new SFI offer.
Certainty and transparency
We know you need certainty to plan ahead, so we can confirm there will be two SFI application windows this year.
| Opens | Who can apply | |
|---|---|---|
| First window | June |
Farmers with small farms
Farmers without existing environmental land management agreements |
| Second window | September | All farmers |
We will publish clear definitions of these two groups before the first window opens.
We will set clear budgets for each window and provide regular updates so you can see when a window is close to being fully subscribed.
We will not close application windows without warning.
Stay informed
This morning, we published a blog post summarising the Secretary of State's OFC2026 speech. It includes a number of announcements to support farmers in England.
Subscribe to the Farming blog to receive updates on the SFI offer and information from the Farming and Countryside Programme.
The 
12 comments
Comment by C posted on
With application window opening in September I find it hard to believe that many of the SFI options will be able to be established/planted in the 2026 year due to the late timing in the year so that leaves at least another year before any of these new agreements start providing a real benefit. It makes me wonder if you have considered the actual timing of when farmers can establish certain crops to meet your wildlife goals? Why not open the applications early this year so we can get these new options established in the spring/summer of 2026?
Having read the speech at Oxford Farming Conference this morning it looks like you will be applying some sort of cap on areas/values. Could this cap be related to our old BPS payment amount to ensure fairness to all sizes of farms?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Charlie,
Thanks for getting in touch and sharing your concerns about timings. We wanted to ensure that there is an SFI offer available within 2026 so farmers are able to plan into 2027 and beyond. SFI is a 3-year scheme, and each SFI Action description sets out when and how that action should be delivered in the “when to do it” section. This is an example of how we currently describe the approach: https://www.gov.uk/find-funding-for-land-or-farms/csam2-multi-species-winter-cover-crop
We will update our actions and it is important farmers read the description of each action carefully. We will announce the details of the cap before we open applications. If you subscribe to the Farming blog, you’ll get a notification as soon as any new information is available: https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Simon Ward posted on
Has it been taken into account that small farms are not always reliant on farming income and have the best opportunity of converting the gross margin payment to something approaching the net margin through the use of contractors? The sector under threat is the commercial family farmers that produce most of our food. These farmers will not have the opportunity to improve efficiency by the sensible provision of environmental goods until later in the year when it will be too late plant and plan cropping.
To obtain value for money the target option area should be defined by region and farmers should be allowed to bid to supply. This would make it easier to control the budget and ensure delivery of the environmental targets.
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Simon
Thank you for your feedback, I've shared this with the SFI policy team. The first window in June will be for small farms and for those without a current ELM agreement. There are commercial family farms who hadn’t previously applied for SFI and don’t have ELM agreements, so we're hopeful this window approach provides an opportunity to prioritise farmers in that position. It also provides an opportunity to spread the funding as widely and fairly as possible.
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by John Hawkins posted on
Hello. When will DEFRA release the detail for these new SFI schemes please so that Farmers can start planning now? Thank you in advance
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi John,
Thank you for getting in touch. We will publish full scheme details before we open the first application window in June. If you subscribe to the Farming blog, you’ll get a notification as soon as the guidance is available https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Paul posted on
As you might imagine - a critical question from farmers is what is Defra's definition of a 'small farm' ?
In addition, will applicants eligible for the 2026 round 1 be prevented or limited from applying in the 2026 round 2 instead?
Will farmers who accepted a 1 year CS extension in December 2025 - together with those whose CS ends this coming December, be able to apply in the 2026 round 2 in preparation for a 1 Jan 2027 start date?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Paul,
Thank you for your questions. We will work with stakeholders to define what a small farm is, and publish this definition before the first application window opens in June. All farmers will be able to apply when the second application window opens in September. If you subscribe to the Farming blog, you’ll get a notification as any new information is available: https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Gillian Wood posted on
What constitutes a small farm?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Gillian,
Thanks for getting in touch. We are working with stakeholders to define this. We’ll let you know what the precise definition is before the first application window opens in June. If you subscribe to the Farming blog, you’ll get a notification as soon as the full guidance is available: https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Best wishes,
The Team
Comment by Torz Brown posted on
What constitutes a 'small farm'?
Comment by The Team posted on
Hi Torz,
Thank you for your question. This is one of the details we’ll be working with stakeholders on. We’ll publish a precise definition before the first application window opens in June. If you subscribe to the Farming blog, you’ll get a notification as soon as the full guidance is available: https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/subscribe/
Best wishes,
The Team