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Water body buffering standard of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot
The guidance on this page is for SFI pilot participants only. Please visit GOV.UK for the official Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme guidance.
Find out about the standard for water body buffering, what land is eligible and how much you can get paid.
Applications for the pilot have now closed. The Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 offer is due to launch from summer 2023. To find out more about the SFI 2023 offer, read the SFI Handbook for the SFI 2023 offer.
The water body buffering standard is for farmers piloting the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme.
Water body buffers are strips of grassland you plant next to water. They improve water quality by slowing the flow of surface runoff and trapping pollutants from agriculture.
How the standard works
There are 3 levels to the standard. Each level has a set of actions you must complete, where relevant, to get paid.
The levels build on one another - each one includes the actions from the previous levels.
If you’re already doing activities on your land that fulfil the actions in this standard, you can use these areas instead of creating new ones. This means you can maintain existing areas to complete actions that require you to ‘create’ or ‘establish’ something.
Anything you’re doing to fulfil an action only counts towards that action. It will not count towards the standard’s other actions, unless this guidance says otherwise.
When to complete actions
Because agreements will start from November 2021 at the earliest, it will be too late to complete some actions that must take place after harvest - for example, establishing a green cover by the end of September or mid-October.
Complete these actions within 12 months of your agreement start date. This means you can complete the post-harvest actions after harvest 2022.
Actions that need you to create a new habitat may not be practical during the winter months - for example, sowing a winter bird food mix. You should complete these actions within 12 months of your agreement start date.
If you're amending your agreement to add this standard, or to change the ambition level of this standard in an existing agreement, you'll need to complete all of the actions listed below within 12 months from when the amendment starts. For example, if you're adding this standard to an agreement with a 1 November 2021 start date for the second year of that agreement, the amendment would be effective from 1 November 2022 and the actions for this standard would need to be completed by 31 October 2023.
How much you’ll be paid
In January 2024, we reviewed the payment rates for the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot standards following our previous review in 2023.
Payment rates for the introductory, intermediate and advanced levels of the water buffering standard were increased. The increase will apply from the start of your agreement.
For your agreement to show the revised payment rates, you need to sign into the Rural Payments service to ‘Generate’ and ‘Download’ an updated version of your agreement. Doing this will update your agreement document.
The levels and payments for this standard are set out in the table. These payment rates are annual.
.
| Level | Payment per 100 metres | Previous payment rate |
|---|---|---|
| Introductory | £25 | £21 |
| Intermediate | £45 | £37 |
| Advanced | £51 | £43 |
You can also apply for funding for capital items.
What land is eligible
You can apply the standard to arable and intensive grassland next to:
- ponds or lakes
- rivers
- streams
- canals
- field ditches, including temporarily dry watercourses
You cannot use it on:
- coastal waters
- estuaries
- sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)
- ponds associated with industrial features such as effluent ponds, balancing ponds or small water supply reservoirs
If you only have control over one side of the water body, you should only enter half its length in the agreement.
Changes to the land because you’re completing actions
The land must be eligible at the start date of your agreement.
Changes to the land’s use, composition or cover that happen because you’re fulfilling the actions in this standard do not affect eligibility, and you’ll continue to be paid under this standard, at your chosen ambition level.
Sites of special scientific interest (SSSIs)
Grass buffers can be located on undesignated land next to SSSI water bodies, but you need consent from Natural England for any actions on the boundary of the SSSI.
Make your request for consent when you get your agreement offer. Send a copy of the offer along with a notice form to:
ProtectedSites@naturalengland.org.uk
Your agreement cannot start without SSSI consent.
For more information read the guidance Sites of special scientific interest: managing your land
Actions at all levels
You can be paid to do the following actions on buffer strips that are already established, unless they are required by, or being paid for through another scheme.
1. Do a runoff and soil erosion risk assessment
Identify where to put grass buffer strips by doing a run-off and soil risk assessment.
Prioritise the higher risk areas when deciding where to put the buffers.
Required documents
You must keep your runoff and soil erosion risk assessment documents for us to monitor. You do not need to send these to us unless we ask for them.
Information on runoff and soil erosion risk assessments
How you complete this action is up to you, but you can read information on how to complete a runoff and soil erosion risk assessment
2. Establish grass buffer strips
The grass buffer strips will protect water bodies from pollutants carried in field run-off.
Establish and maintain water body grass buffer strips next to at least 50% of the total length of water bodies in the agreement.
For the introductory level, these buffer strips will be 6 metres wide on at least 50% of the total length of water bodies in the agreement.
For the intermediate and advanced levels, these buffer strips will be:
- 6 metres wide on at least 20% of the total length of water bodies in the agreement
- 10 metres wide on at least 30% of the total length of water bodies in the agreement
These should be measured from the edge of the watercourse at the top of the bank and include the 2 metre or 1 metre cross compliance buffers required under GAEC 1.
The location of the buffers will be informed by the soil and runoff assessment, and should complement field-scale actions to reduce soil compaction and runoff at source.
Where to put 6 metre and 10 metre buffers (intermediate and advanced levels)
Put 6 metre grass buffers in fields where there is low to moderate risk of soil erosion or run-off.
Put 10 metre buffers next to water bodies in high-risk locations, where there is greater upslope pollution pressure and a wider buffer is needed to slow run-off water.
What you must not do
On the buffer strips you must not:
- apply any fertilisers or manures
- use pesticides, except for herbicides
- drive on margins, or use margins as tracks - access for essential maintenance should be planned to cause minimal disturbance to the margin
- allow livestock on to the strip
Information on grass buffer strips
How you complete this action is up to you, but you can read information on how to create and maintain grass strips
Advanced level only
Add a wildflower mix to at least 20% of the total length of water body grass buffers to introduce more diverse rooting depths, aid good soil structure and intercept nutrients.
Information on flower-rich margins and plots
How you complete this action is up to you, but you can read information on how to create and maintain flower-rich margins and plots.
Supporting evidence
You may want to keep supporting evidence for this action.
This is in case actions you have undertaken and aims or outcomes achieved are not clear from remote monitoring or at site visits.
2. (Optional action) Establish in-field grass strips or blocks on cultivated land
Do this where additional in-field measures are needed to intercept run-off water.
You’ll be paid an additional £0.09 per square metre per year (previous payment rate £0.06 per square metre per year).
Information on in-field grass strips or blocks
How you complete this action is up to you, but you can read information on how to:
Further advice and information
For further advice on doing the actions in this standard read the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot: summary of advice.
Read more about how this standard will meet the environmental outcomes and benefits of the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot.
Funding for capital items
As a Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot participant, you can apply for funding to support your standards.
Capital items which may support the aims of this standard:
- fencing
- sheep netting
- permanent electric fencing
- wooden field gate
- hard bases for livestock drinkers
- pasture pumps and associated pipework
- ram pumps and associated pipework
- livestock troughs
- pipework associated with livestock troughs
You can apply for these through Countryside Stewardship (CS) capital grants in the Rural Payments service. This is subject to the items being used as described in the ‘Where to use this item’ section for each item. To check where items can be used and the records you must supply you can use the CS Grants Finder.
If you’re successful you’ll be offered a separate Countryside Stewardship capital grant agreement. To be eligible for this funding you must not start capital items work (or order materials) until your Countryside Stewardship capital grants agreement starts.
You may also be able to get funding from other programmes for precision fertilizer application equipment.
Monitoring and support
The Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot will use a new model for monitoring agreements. It will focus on outcomes and improvement instead of penalties.
Once your agreement has started, we’ll use various techniques to see whether you’re achieving the aims of the standards.
Read more about:
Additional standards you can apply to this land
Land parcels you use for this standard can also be used for the:
- arable and horticultural land standard
- arable and horticultural soils standard
- hedgerows standard
- improved grassland standard
- improved grassland soils standard
- low and no input grassland standard
If you apply more than one standard to the same land, the actions for each must be delivered separately.
Further information
See all the Sustainable Farming Incentive pilot guidance.
