Changes to SFI24: What it means

On Tuesday, Defra announced they would not be accepting any further applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2024 scheme in England.

This news has taken everyone in agriculture by surprise and we understand the concern and frustration being felt across the industry. SFI has been well adopted by farmers and has the potential to deliver tangible environmental improvements at the same time as supporting farm business resilience. The closure of the scheme to new applications comes at a time of already significant financial pressure to farms, particularly following the reduction of delinked Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments last year.

Whilst not perfect, SFI had achieved significant uptake with over 37,000 agreements live and a lot of actions being adopted, including 230,000 ha of winter cover crop being funded. For many farms, payments supported the continuation of practices which were already underway, while others have used the scheme to implement changes such as growing companion crops.

We understand that there are some farmers who are more affected than others and we have received calls from many about how the news affects them. Sadly, at this moment it is unclear what will be available for those who have reached the end of an existing Countryside Stewardship agreement and have not yet been able to apply for SFI, and those with agreements that end in the next 12 months. In those cases we understand the closure of the scheme must feel particularly daunting. 

In terms of what we know today, the direction currently is that:

• If farmers already have an agreement, then it will run until the expiry date. If they entered a SFI agreement this year, they will be paid until 2028. If the agreement expires in October 2026, they may be eligible to apply for a revised SFI offer - more details will be available later this year.
  
  

• If farmers have been offered an agreement but haven't accepted, they are still required to accept within 10 working days of the offer. If accepted, their agreement will then run for three years. If they do not accept, Defra may withdraw the offer and they will not be able to 'reapply' for SFI24; instead they will have to wait for the revised SFI scheme.
  
  

• If farmers have applied but have not yet received an offer, they will be offered an agreement in due course, provided the application is eligible. It will be important that they respond to this offer within the 10 working days required.
  
  

• If farmers started an application but did not submit it before the scheme was closed, they will not be able to proceed with their application.
  
  

• SFI pilot farms haven't applied for the full SFI24 offer on the land in their pilot agreement, but will be able to submit an application when their pilot has ended. The RPA will let them know how to do this shortly. 
  
  

The evolution of funding in the private sector 

While the news on SFI is significant in terms of publicly funded support for environmental action, Defra has also stated that it intends to reform markets, supply chains and regulations to ensure farmers receive fair payment for food production, incorporating private sector support where possible.

At Frontier, we believe that balancing public and private funding is key for both farm and environmental resilience. We are working, across the industry, on the design and delivery of a range of sustainable supply chain programmes which financially reward farmers. At both a farm or landscape scale, these projects provide support in various ways, either by providing seed, derisking the growing of crops, funding environmental actions or through product premiums.

With public funding set to evolve and the number of private sector initiatives increasing, it has never been more important for farmers to take a holistic approach when navigating the different options and opportunities, taking into account the objectives for the whole farm and considerations around how best to optimise production and profitability. To support farmers with these decisions, we have devised some simple steps, all of which can be found here.

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