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Sustainable Farming Incentive Pilot: Easements for Standards due to drought conditions in England
The guidance on this page is for SFI pilot participants only. Please visit GOV.UK for the official Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme guidance.
Details
We understand the impacts that this year’s extreme weather and droughts have had on land managers and farmers. At the end of July, the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) published guidance giving extreme heat advice for farmers and land managers, who were facing difficulties meeting requirements for their rural grant and payment schemes.
Since then, Defra has approved temporary requirement adjustments to some Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Environmental Stewardship (ES) options. We are now able to offer some adjustments to some Standards in the SFI pilot, which will make meeting the Standards easier to manage due to the ongoing drought conditions. These are called ‘Easements’.
Please read below to find out how these will apply.
Dates
Most of the easements will be in place from 17 August to 31 December 2022. Unless mentioned below, the original requirements for all Standards will be back in place on 1 January 2023. If you’re still having difficulty meeting the Standards after then, please contact the RPA.
What the easements mean for you
We have introduced some easements (such as cutting or grazing additional areas of land) to help ease shortages of bedding, fodder, grazing or forage crops. This is for your own use and to share with the wider community and should not be for profit or sold into the wider market.
As a SFI Pilot agreement holder, you can choose to make use of the easements if you’re having difficulty meeting some of the Standards or continue delivering the Actions within your agreement Standards as they are. If you make use of the easements, you don’t need to tell us in advance, but it is important that you record details in your Learning Journal.
You’ll still receive the same payment under your SFI Pilot agreement if you make use of the easements.
You must still meet with regulatory and cross compliance requirements, and consider soil conditions (poaching, compaction, run-off), particularly on land which is grazed or used by machinery.
What you need to do
Read the guidance below and keep a record of any details of where and how the hot weather conditions have had an impact on the delivery of the Actions in your Standards. This should include details of what you have done or intend to do as an alternative. We would also like to hear your ideas about doing things differently in the future if similar circumstances occurred again.
What records you need to keep
Please keep the following records in your Learning Journal, as we may ask to see them:
- the Standards and specific Actions within your agreement that have been affected
- the land parcels that have been affected, if not the whole area entered into your agreement
- what impact the dry weather has had on your delivery of the Actions in the Standards
- what steps you have taken because of this impact
- what steps you intend to take to resume delivery of your Standards
You don’t have to complete any temporary adjustment forms or let the RPA or SFI Pilot Learning team know in advance if you choose to make use of the temporary easements.
If you are making use of the easements, you can still complete your Annual Declaration on a confirmed delivery basis.
Easements applying to SFI Pilot Standards
Drought easements for Actions within the Pilot Standards are listed below. If the easement applies to certain Ambition levels, these are noted next to the standard (Introductory, Intermediate or Advanced).
If an Action is coded red, the easement doesn’t require you to deliver that Action for the remainder of the calendar year (until 1 January 2023).
If an Action is coded yellow, the easement doesn’t require establishment of the Action to be successful (e.g., diverse swards, green cover, winter seed), but you should still attempt establishment and record evidence of this in your Learning Journal.
If an Action is coded orange the easement doesn’t require you to deliver that Action for the remainder of the calendar year, to allow forage to be used more flexibly. For example, you can graze, cut and conserve margins, buffer strips or areas where you would not usually be able to do this to deliver the Action.
If an Action is coded N/A no easements apply, and the Action should be delivered in full.
If you are having difficulty meeting any Actions not covered, or if you have any questions, please contact the RPA.
Arable & Horticultural Land Standard
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Provide resources for birds and pollinators on eligible land (Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced) | Yellow |
| Create buffers around in-field trees (Introductory, Intermediate, Advanced) | N/A |
| Use a nutrient management plan> | N/A |
| Use low emission technologies | N/A |
| Support a wide range of farm wildlife | N/A |
| Complete a whole farm nutrient budget | N/A |
| Do soil mapping | N/A |
| Manage ditches | N/A |
| Maintain areas of tall vegetation, scrub and wet features | N/A |
| Support crop-pest predators | N/A |
| Apply fertilisers and pesticides with precision equipment | N/A |
Arable & Horticultural Soils
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Complete a soil assessment | N/A |
| Alleviate soil compaction | N/A |
| Establish green cover | Yellow |
| Add soil organic matter | N/A> |
| Use minimum tillage or no-tillage farming techniques | N/A |
| Create a soil management plan | N/A |
Hedgerows
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Leave at least 50% of the hedgerow uncut | N/A |
| Maintain hedgerow trees, or plant or tag new ones | N/A |
| Leave more hedgerows uncut or raise the cutting height | N/A |
| Leave the tops to grow uncut on short hedgerows | N/A |
| Create buffer strips on both sides of the hedgerow | Orange |
Improved Grassland (Land)
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Create buffers around in-field trees | N/A |
| Manage fields for grazing | Red |
| Manage historic features in grassland | N/A |
| Leave margins uncut to encourage flowers and seed | Orange |
| Use a nutrient management plan | N/A |
| Allow tall vegetation and scrub to develop on grassland (Introductory, Intermediate) | N/A |
| Control cutting on silage fields | N/A |
| Manage ditches | N/A |
| Test your manures and soils | N/A |
| Complete a whole farm nutrient budget | N/A |
| Limit inputs of liquid manures | N/A |
| Use low emission technologies | N/A |
| Introduce clover and other legumes on improved grassland (Intermediate, Advanced) | Yellow |
| Allow ryegrass to bear seed | Orange |
| Reduce nutrient inputs | N/A |
| Do soil mapping | N/A |
| Use efficient precision application equipment | N/A |
Improved Grassland Soils
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Do a soil assessment | N/A |
| Alleviate soil compaction | N/A |
| Add or retain a mix of legumes, herbs and grasses | Yellow |
| Maintain permanent grassland on land at risk of erosion or surface runoff | N/A |
| Manage livestock density on grassland at risk of erosion or surface runoff | N/A |
| Create a soil management plan | N/A |
Low / No Input Grassland
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Manage grazed pasture with limited nutrient inputs | N/A |
| Manage weeds and invasive or competitive species | N/A |
| Create buffers around in-field trees | N/A |
| Leave margins uncut | Red |
| Manage supplementary feeding | N/A |
| Manage ditches | N/A |
| Manage fields for grazing | Red |
| Manage rushes in grassland | N/A |
| Maintain areas of tall vegetation, scrub and wet features | N/A |
| Manage conserved forage area as hay meadow (Intermediate, Advanced) | N/A |
| Provide habitat for wading birds | N/A |
Waterbody Buffering
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| Do a runoff and soil erosion risk assessment | N/A |
| Establish grass buffer strips | Orange |
Farm Woodland
| Action | Code |
|---|---|
| No easements apply | N/A |
