Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

There has been lots of talk about the SFI, so we thought we’d give you an overview of what is set to come.

The SFI is the first of 3 new environmental land management schemes available to farmers who are currently eligible to claim the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and who have management control over the land they wish to put into application for 3 years.

The scheme will pay farmers to produce public goods such as improved water quality, increased biodiversity, animal health & welfare and climate change mitigation alongside food production. This is part of the ’25 Year Environment Plan’, ‘Net Zero’, biodiversity and DEFRA’s animal health and welfare ambitions.

2022 will be the first year of the SFI with application window expecting to open in the Spring. It will begin with a smaller number of options than first planned, but as the scheme proceeds, more standards and improvements will be made.

Aims of the initial SFI offer include:

• enhance health and fertility of soils naturally
• contribute to efforts to reach ‘Net Zero’
• restoration of moorlands and rough grazing

SFI will operate at a land parcel level, meaning the whole farm does not have to be entered into the agreement; farmers have the choice of how many fields they want to enter. There is no minimum or maximum requirement of land that can be entered into the scheme.

SFI agreements will last for 3 years, with yearly opportunities through the agreement to amend options from their start date, whether that be by increasing ambitions within standards, incorporating new additional standards as they come along and/or adding more land to the agreement (including those coming out of CSS); this will allow more flexibility for farmers. Standards and payment rates will remain stable for the first 3 years after 2022 sign-up, but there after may adapt depending on what is learnt during early rollout.

The plan for applications is for there to be a 10 week application window alongside Countryside Stewardship applications to allow applicants to make choices alongside other schemes. Precise dates of application windows opening will be announced soon.

SFI payments will be paid in quarterly instalments, beginning 3 months after agreement start date. There will be no capital payments as part of the SFI, but capital offers will still be available through the Water Capital Grant Scheme and future capital offers being introduced in 2022.

Summary of the soil standards
Aim: to improve soil health, structure, organic matter and biology, promote clean water, improve the climate resilience, biodiversity and food production.

Arable and Horticultural Soils standard
Introductory level - £22/ha TOTAL

• Test soil organic matter
• Undertake soil assessment and produce soil management plans
• 70% winter cover to protect soil (Dec-Feb) including use of any green cover e.g. autumn sown crops and weedy stubbles
• Addition of organic matter (third of the land in standard per year) through applying farmyard manures, green manures, cover crops, catch crops or putting grass in rotation

Intermediate level - £40/ha TOTAL

• Test soil organic matter
• Undertake soil assessment and produce soil management plans
• 70% winter cover to protect soil (Dec-Feb) including use of any green cover e.g. autumn sown crops and weedy stubbles – at least 20% of land in intermediate level of standard must have multi-species green cover
• Addition of organic matter (third of the land in standard per year) through applying farmyard manures, green manures, cover crops, catch crops, putting grass in rotation

Improved Grassland Soils standard

Introductory level - £28/ha TOTAL

• Test soil organic matter
• Undertake soil assessment and produce soil management plans
• 95% green cover to protect soil (no more than 5% bare ground over winter) achieved through early establishment of reseed, preventing livestock from poaching wet ground and management of supplementary feeding

Intermediate level - £58/ha TOTAL

• Test soil organic matter
• Undertake soil assessment and produce soil management plans
• 95% green cover to protect soil (no more than 5% bare ground over winter) achieved through early establishment of reseed, preventing livestock from poaching wet ground and management of supplementary feeding
• Establish or maintain herbal leys to improve soil health on at least 15% of land entered into the standard

Currently the SFI is only offering Introductory and Intermediate levels of standards, with Advanced standards set to be released from 2023 onwards, with likely requirements to use no tillage techniques.

More details of the further two environmental land management schemes, Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery will be released in 2022.

If you would like more information about the Sustainable Farming Incentives, please contact Emily on 07944 680469 or email emilybunn@fcgagric.com