Skip to main content

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.

Wigan Greenheart Landscape Recovery: an industrial past and a thriving future 

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

The Wigan Greenheart Landscape Recovery project covers a combined area of approximately 1,446 hectares in Lancashire. In this post, project manager Tony Da Silva shares an overview of the site, its history and the project team's ambition to support a thriving natural environment in which people, wildlife and agriculture can flourish.

Watch: How we put unproductive farmland to use

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: A view from the farm

In this film, farming facilitator Danny Teasdale took us to Strickley Farm in Cumbria, to meet dairy farmer James Robinson. Danny and James show us a piece of farmland that has always been unproductive and prone to flooding. James and Danny explain how they re-meandered the stream through the flooded area to create a natural habitat for wildlife that can also be used for grazing livestock.

Slurry: making the best of it 

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: A view from the farm, Things we're doing, Things we've learned, Ways to get involved
Slurry spreading in fields, Shaftesbury

Slurry contains lots of nutrients including nitrates, phosphate and potash as well as a host of other things that can benefit soil health and support crop growth. It can, however, create significant pollution to our water and air. Through co-design, our team joined with a group of farmers, industry leaders and experts to explore the subject. In this post, we’ll share what we’ve learned and how we plan to support farmers so that nutrients from slurry aren’t lost, that any damage to our environment is reduced and farmers aren’t dependent on expensive artificial fertilisers.

A view from the farm

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: A view from the farm, environmental land management schemes

My name is Harry Baker Cresswell. I farm Preston Mains Farm in Northumberland. I have been involved in tests and trials since 2018. It has been a great opportunity for myself and the 52 other farmers in the 23 Burns Collective to help Defra co-design the new environmental land management schemes. I'd like to share my view.

Opening Countryside Stewardship for 2022 agreements

Posted by: , Posted on: - Categories: Countryside Stewardship, environmental land management schemes

Our Countryside Stewardship scheme is now open for 2022 agreements. Countryside Stewardship will eventually be replaced with the new Environmental Land Management scheme. By entering an agreement now, farmers will benefit from the new agricultural policy once it is fully rolled out in 2024.