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The Team

We're working with farms to improve the way we regulate and support farming and the environment.

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Why we’re putting area limits on some SFI actions

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Sustainable Farming Incentive
Up on the hill the farmer is turning the grass to help it dry and so get a crop of hay rather than sileage. Photo taken in High Birkwith.

Since we opened the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) for applications, we’ve continued to refine the scheme. One of the things we’ve been monitoring is the impact of those actions which take land out of food production. In this post, we’ll explain why we’re putting area limits on some SFI actions.

From application to agreement: making the process to join SFI simple

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Sustainable Farming Incentive
Interior shot of Mac screen in a kitchen, with SFI apply page displayed

When you apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), we want your experience to be smooth and we want to offer you as much flexibility as possible. In this post, we’ll set out what you can do and what we’re doing to make the process of applying as straightforward as it can be, so you can join the 14,000 other farmers, growers and land managers who've already applied.

Spotlight on updates and additions to livestock and grassland offer

Over the past few weeks, we've summarised the updates to our environmental land management offer by farm type. These posts follow last month's Agricultural Transition Plan update. In this post, we’ll focus on the updated offer for livestock and grassland farmers. 

Landscape Recovery: building long-term agreements

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments to restore landscapes and ecosystems

Landscape Recovery supports large-scale, long-term management of land for the benefit of sustainable food production and the environment. Many of the 22 projects in Round 1 are now halfway through the Project Development Phase (PDP). Our ability to co-design this scheme is founded on open and honest relationships with project teams. In this post, we share a summary of the work to develop long-term agreements.

The current offer for horticultural growers and farmers 

Brussel sprouts

The horticulture industry in England is diverse. As such, we and have a range of different offers available for farmers and growers. Whether you grow carrots or strawberries, daffodils or apples there is support you can access to help increase your productivity, improve the environment and innovate. In this post, we’ll summarise the schemes and grants horticultural famers and growers can access now. We'll also include links for you to join 2 upcoming webinars.

Spotlight on new actions for arable and horticulture farmers

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Sustainable Farming Incentive
View through the alley of a Kentish vinyard

At the beginning of the month, we published a post which summarised the recent Agricultural Transition Plan update. The update includes the full range of new and improved actions plus the payment rates available this year. Following the update, we said we'd set out the offer for each farm type in a series of posts. This post is for arable and horticultural farmers.

Watch: an SFI special from Oxford

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Conversations we're having, Sustainable Farming Incentive

Earlier this month, we attended both the Oxford Real Farming Conference and the Oxford Farming Conference (OFC). In this post, we share 2 videos. The first video is a session hosted by Jim Egan and Jonathan Baker on environmental land management and the agricultural transition. The second video features farmers John Geldard and Ben Taylor-Davies. John gives his opinion on the work of the team and Ben describes his experience of SFI and plans for his farm. 

Spotlight on new actions: agroforestry and improvements to our trees and woodland offer

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Payments to plant trees and manage woodland, Sustainable Farming Incentive
Sheep grazing among young trees

The Agricultural Transition Plan update includes the full range of new and updated Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) actions and the payment rates available in 2024. In this post, we focus on the new agroforestry actions and include improvements to the Countryside Stewardship (CS) offer for trees and woodlands.