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Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) guidance for farmers, December 2024

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Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) guidance for farmers, December 2024

There has been a stream of announcements on support for farmers alongside the more headline grabbing news. We have drafted this update to offer you some guidance.

Applications

The requirement to complete an 'expression of interest' form to get onto the application process has been lifted. This means that you can apply for SFI. There are less glitches and issues, although many of the problems we are hearing about are related to land use codes on fields. In one case, the wrong land use code has been in place for years, calling a pond an area of hard standing. Land use changes are easy to do on the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) portal.

Higher Level SFI options

The new higher tier options have not yet been announced. Farms and anyone with a Countryside Stewardship (CS) Higher Tier (HT) or Higher Level Stewardship (HLS) agreement ending on 31 December would not yet be able to apply for this higher level of options.

As a partial solution, for any farms with agreements ending in the next 12 months, the RPA will be contacting all farmers with CSHT agreements offering 5- or 10-year mirror agreement offers. They will also be offering a 2-year extension for HLS agreements to all farms in that situation to continue the environmental support. This mirror agreement will be at the same payment rates as the existing agreement. In some cases, these are less than equivalent SFI options.

If you are one of those farms, you do not have to accept this. You can leave and reapply for SFI options now, and potentially the Higher Tier options later, when that scheme is open. If you do accept this offer, you will be able to leave the new agreement at any time, without penalty if you leave at the end of the year. There will be the possibility to leave existing HLS schemes which are not finishing, but it is complex. It is still not possible to change from CS to SFI, but will be available soon.

Capital grants

The capital grants application process has been closed for new applicants. Existing CS and SFI agreements will still be honoured -  it is just ones in the system that are at issue. Defra had said that there would be a budget limit next year and it would be a first-come-first-served system, but this has been brought forward. We assume farms that previously had not been aware of the opportunity have been applying. Anyone who has applied will be contacted with more details. There are a limited number of specific capital grants still open. Find out more in this update on capital grants blog from Defra. 

Annual declaration

In the last months of each year of your agreement, you will need to complete the annual declaration form. This ensures that you get the 4th payment and the agreement will continue.

Rotational SFI options

Where you have a rotational option, you will need to tell the RPA where you intend to put that option in the second year, even if it hasn’t actually moved. You can increase the area, or even decrease to at least 50 percent of the area first applied for.  This means that you do not have the issue of splitting fields to maintain claimed areas as in previous schemes. Payment will be on the area claimed.

 

Find out more

Jerry Alford Jerry Alford