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Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Jonathan Baker, Defra

Jonathan Baker

Jonathan Baker is Deputy Director, Programme Policy, Engagement and Strategy in the Future Farming and Countryside Programme.

Jonathan works on the cross-cutting policy and overall strategy in Defra's Future of Farming Directorate. He works across government to shape the design of agricultural policy, talking to stakeholders and providing advice to ministers.

Jonathan previously worked for the Country Land and Business Association (CLA) where he lead on environmental land use policy.

Prior to the CLA, he was a Senior Consultant at a research consultancy where he supported and managed research and evaluation projects for UK and international clients. As part of this role he was a Policy Evaluation Fellow - working to improve policy evaluation across Defra.

Jonathan built on his Environmental Science degree with a MSc in Environmental Technology (Environmental Analysis and Assessment) at Imperial College London’s Centre for Environmental Policy.

You can follow Jonathan on Twitter: @jojabaker

Environmental land management in 2024: details of actions and payments

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Countryside Stewardship, Farming and Countryside Programme, Sustainable Farming Incentive
Sheep grazing in field with trees and farmland in the distance

Today we published an update to the Agricultural Transition Plan on GOV.UK. It includes our progress, priorities and plans for the coming years. In this post, I'll share a summary of the update which includes details of scheme payment rates, premium payments, new actions and plans for a single application service.

Introducing SFI Management Payments and changes to Countryside Stewardship rates

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Countryside Stewardship, Sustainable Farming Incentive, Things we've learned
Winter scene on the Killerton estate by Alison Day

In this, the first blog post of the year, I’d like to share two updates with you and explain the rationale behind them. The first update is a change to Countryside Stewardship payment rates. The second is the introduction of the Sustainable Farming Incentive Management Payment.

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About us

This blog is managed by Defra’s Farming and Countryside Programme.

On this blog, we explain the reforms to agricultural policy in England.

We share what we’re working on, what we’re learning and how you can get involved.

Find out more

New: drafts of further endorsed SFI actions

We’ve published drafts of an additional 14 SFI endorsed actions. Once we take stakeholder feedback on board, we expect these actions to be available from summer 2025.

Funding for farmers, growers and land managers in England

GOV.UK is the place to find official guidance and information.

Funding for farmers, growers and land managers sets out every payment on offer with links to learn more.

Get advice

The Farming Resilience Fund provides free, independent business support to farmers. If you’ve received direct payments since October 2022, you’re eligible. 

The Farming Advice Service (FAS) provide free, confidential advice to farmers and advisers.

Catchment Sensitive Farming (CSF) helps farmers in England protect water, air and soil. CSF advisers can provide advice on best practices and specific SFI actions that will benefit your farm business and the environment.

We’ve compiled a list of organisations offering wellbeing support to those in the farming community.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive

Thumbnail image showing link to SFI site - farmer in foreground and cows behind.

Find out how SFI can work for you.

Webinars in 2025

Attend upcoming webinars and watch recordings.

BPS and delinked payments

Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England will be replaced with delinked payments in 2024.

Learn how they’re calculated and who’s eligible.

Sign up and manage updates

Using this blog

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