2024 Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) roll-out begins
Defra has begun rolling out applications for the 2024 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), allowing a wider range of land managers to avail of Defra funding.
Following the move away from the Basic Payments Scheme (BPS), this SFI funding will be available to any land manager, including those not previously registered for BPS.
“If you have management control of it, you can apply for it”
Once the land is registered with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and the applicant has a Single Business Identifier (SBI) number, the land manager to apply for an SFI agreement via this expression of interest form on the Defra website.
Terry Finch, Agri-Environment Director at ADAS said
“This opening up of the SFI to any land manager in England means there is now a new funding route for non-farmers and organisations like parish councils, college farms, even public bodies like local authorities. As long as they are fully responsible for managing the land for the full term of the agreement, they could be eligible for funding.”
Agreements will normally start the month after the application is approved and payments will be made in quarterly installments.
102 SFI actions to choose from
Including limited-area options and eight new ‘5-year’ options
In all, there are 102 potential SFI actions applicants can choose from, along with additional add-on supplements for haymaking, grazing, etc. Along with typical farming related actions, there are actions related to agroforestry, orchards, water bodies, farmland wildlife, and heritage sites. Others relating to coastal areas and woodlands are expected later in the year.
Among the 102 actions are 10 limited-area actions to enhance biodiversity. These combined can only be applied to a maximum of 25% of the land entered. This restriction is to limit the amount of land taken out of food production.
Most of the 102 SFI actions are a three year commitment. For 2024, Defra has introduced eight actions which land managers will have to maintain for five years along with any supplements claimed alongside them.
Terry commented: “The five year actions relate to habitat creation and more complex management requirements; hence they are longer to ensure the full environmental benefits are realised. The length of your SFI agreement will depend on the duration of the actions you choose so before committing to an action, doublecheck the duration.”
As with 2023, it is possible for agreement holders to add more actions during the course of their SFI agreement, with the exception of the final year.
Endorsed actions
In June 2024, Defra introduced ‘endorsed’ action. Endorsed actions require prior written approval from Natural England or Historic England. This sign off may mean that agreements including these actions may take longer to approve.
It is possible for an applicant to enter into two different SFI agreements at the same time to help manage actions with different terms. Terry explained:
“Keeping field parcels which have longer term or endorsed actions separate to the rest with a separate SFI agreement might make it easier to keep track of commitments, speed up the approval process, and get that first payment faster.”
Struggling to decide the most practical and profitable actions? ADAS has developed an SFI funding calculator to plan out actions and calculate final payments. Contact us at enquiries@adas.co.uk for guidance.
Free SFI application support available through the Future Farming Resilience Fund
Farmers who claimed BPS in England are eligible for free farm business advice under Defra’s Future Farming Resilience Fund (FFRF). ADAS is an FFRF provider and our consultants can advise eligible farmers on the SFI potential on their holding, free of charge.
Please contact us at resilience@adas.co.uk to find out more or visit our FFRF webpage to find out more about FFRF.