Since 2021, over 800 farmers in England have been testing an early version of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), delivering 10,000 actions on their land. In this post, I’ll explain how farmers in the pilot have helped us to shape the current and future offer. I'll also include a video which gives an overview of our work.
Earlier this year, I shared an update on the New Entrant Support scheme pilots. In the post, I included portraits of our participants. Since the pilots finished in May, we have been busy evaluating them using participant surveys, interviews and reports from the pilot leaders. With close to 200 pilot participants, there was a lot of valuable feedback to analyse, and we continue to learn from it. In this post, I’d like to share our initial findings so far.
Through 5 pilots, we’re exploring different ways to support new entrants to develop successful land-based businesses in England. We’re now over halfway through. In this post, I’ll share a brief overview of our participants, what we’ve learned and our next steps.
Farmers across England are helping us to test the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) through the SFI pilot. In this post, I’ll share a snapshot of what we’ve learned from pilot participants through on-farm and large-scale, regional face-to-face events.
We want to better support those who want to enter farming and develop land-based businesses. One idea that we said we were keen to test through a pilot was incubation: providing tactical support to young businesses through the early stages of development. We put out a call for proposals from organisations to lead these projects through the new entrant support pilot. The bids we received over the summer were impressive. Now that we have pilot leads, you can apply to take part in the pilot.
Rose Nankervis manages Wicca Farm on the north coast of Cornwall. In this video, Rose explains why she decided to take part in the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot.
The Tree Health Pilot has been live for 8 months. In this post, we share what we've learned so far and include an invitation to owners of sweet chestnut trees and oak trees.
The Brooks Family joined the pilot to help us improve the Sustainable Farming Incentive. For over a century, the family has worked on South Thorness Farm, which is found on the north-west coast of the Isle of Wight, within the Hamstead Heritage Coast Area Of Natural Beauty. Listen to how sisters Jess and Sarah, along with their parents Adrian and Joyce, run through the management of their farm and their decision to join the pilot.
Through tests and trials, we want to understand the role that land management plans could play in our future schemes. In the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we provided farmers with 3 different land management plan templates. Each template was developed through tests and trials. One of these templates was developed by the Growing the Goods test and trial group. Watch the final video to see farmers and growers who took part in the Growing the Goods Test & Trial. They share their experience of developing a land management plan.
In the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot, we provided farmers with 3 different land management plan templates. Each template was developed through tests and trials. Farmer Martin Hole took part in the Cuckmere and Pevensey Levels test and trial. He explains how the vision for his farm, and the landscape in which he lives, has been supported by land management planning.
On 10 May, we’ll be at the Nottinghamshire County Show in Newark. Come and say hello to our team.
You can also find us at these agricultural shows and conferences in 2025.
