The Sustainable Farming Incentive

DEFRA have launched the new expanded 2024 Sustainable Farming Incentive offer, which will be available to farmers within the next few weeks.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive pays farmers and land managers to take up or maintain sustainable farming and land management practices that protect and benefit the environment, support food production and improve productivity.

The expanded SFI offer which was recently published will be available to farmers from the end of July and is open to new entrants for the first time. Initially comprising 102 actions, including over 20 new options to support more sustainable food production.

The SFI actions in the expanded offer include:

The actions from the SFI 2023 offer.
New actions such as tillage farming and precision farming.
Actions previously offered under Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier to streamline the application process for farmers.

The 2024 SFI scheme also includes:

23 new options for moorland, precision farming, agroforestry, and stone wall maintenance
57 options from Countryside Stewardship, with most of them now three-year agreements
21 priority actions, including for lowland peat, moorland grazing, and agroforestry

David Morley

Environment & Conservation Manager

01228 406260

Carlisle

View Bio >

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What can farmers get paid to do in SFI 2024?

The Sustainable Farming Incentive pays farmers and landowners to take up or maintain sustainable farming and land management practices that protect and benefit the environment, support food production and improve productivity.

As an example, the new SFI 2024 offer includes actions for Organic Farming, one of which is for OFA1 - Overwinter Stubble (organic land). This means farmers will be paid £264 per hectare for provide a green cover on post-harvest stubble over the autumn and winter months, the purpose of this is to provide a a winter food source for seed-eating farmland birds and provide foraging habitats for farmland wildlife.

in 2024, SFI includes new and expanded actions which will allow farmers to be paid for:

Precision farming
Agroforestry
Multispecies cover crops
Making space for nature
Maintaining habitats

How does SFI work?

As before, SFI agreements will run for 3 years and payments are made quarterly in arrears. This gives greater flexibility for tenant farmers to enter the scheme, as they do not need landlord consent, provided they can reasonably expect to have management control of the land for the 3-year term.

When the scheme re-opens, there will be a “controlled rollout”, which means not everyone will be able to apply at once.

Applications will be made online and the RPA expect to make agreement offers within a few weeks of application, considerably quicker than any other schemes.

In theory, land can be entered into SFI, even if it is already in other schemes. However, you cannot be paid twice for doing the same thing. Many Countryside Stewardship options overlap to some degree with SFI actions, which effectively means that land often cannot be in both schemes. Similarly, hedges already in the CS option BE3 cannot be entered into SFI.

Code	Agroforestry	Payment Rate
AGF1	Maintain very low density (30 – 50 trees/ha) in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land	£248 per ha
AGF2	Maintain low density (51-130 trees/ha) in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land	£385 per ha

Code	Boundary Features	Payment Rate
CHRW2	Manage hedgerows	£13/100m one side
BND1	Maintain dry stone walls	£27/100m both sides
BND2	Maintain earth banks or stone-faced hedgebanks	£11/100m both sides

Code	Buffer Strips	Payment Rate
CAHL4	4m-12m grass buffer strip on arable and horticultural land	£515/ha
CIGL3	4m to 12m grass buffer strip on improved grassland	£235/ha
BFS1	12m-24m watercourse buffer strips on cultivated land	£707/ha
BFS6	6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourse	£742/ha

Code	Farmland Wildlife on Arable and Horticultural Land	Payment Rate
AHW2	Supplementary winter bird food*	£732/t (max 1t per 2ha CAHL2)
AHW3	Beetle banks	£764/ha
AHW4	Skylark plots	£11/plot (min 2 plots/ha)
AHW5	Nesting plots for lapwing	£765/ha
AHW6	Basic overwinter stubble	£58/ha
AHW7	Enhanced overwinter stubble*	£589/ha
AHW8	Whole crop spring cereals and overwinter stubble	£596/ha
AHW9	Unharvested cereal headland*	£1,072/ha
AHW10	Low input harvested cereal crop	£354/ha
AHW11	Cultivated areas for arable plants*	£660/ha
CAHL1	Pollen and nectar flower mix*	£739/ha
CAHL2	Winter bird food on arable and horticultural land*	£648/ha (reduced from £853/ha)
CAHL3	Grassy field corners or blocks*	£590/ha

Code	Farmland Wildlife (Grassland)	Payment Rate
GRH7	Haymaking supplement	£157/ha
GRH8	Haymaking supplement (late cut)	£187/ha
GRH10	Lenient grazing supplement	£28/ha
GRH12	Manage rough grazing for upland breeding waders	£203/ha
CLIG3	Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs	£151/ha
CIGL1	Take grassland field corners or blocks out of management*	£333/ha
CIGL2	Winter bird food on improved grassland*	£515/ha
SCR1	Create scrub and open habitat mosaics	£588/ha
SCR2	Manage scrub and open habitat mosaics	£350/ha

Code	Heritage	Payment Rate
HEF1	Maintain weatherproof traditional farm or forestry buildings	£5/sq m
HEF6	Manage historic and archaeological features on grassland	£55/ha

Code	Integrated Pest Management	Payment Rate
CIPM2	Flower-rich grass margins, blocks or in-field strips*	£798/ha
CIPM3	Companion crop on arable and horticultural land	£55/ha
CIPM4	No use of insecticide on arable crops and permanent crops	£45/ha

Code	Moorland	Payment Rate
UPL1	Moderate livestock grazing on moorland	£35/ha (increased from £20/ha)
UPL2	Low livestock grazing on moorland	£89/ha (increased from £53/ha
UPL3	Limited livestock grazing on moorland	£111/ha (increased from £66/ha)
UPL5	Keep cattle and ponies on moorland supplement (min. 70% GLU)	£18/ha
UPL6	Keep cattle and ponies on moorland supplement (min. 100% GLU)	£23/ha
UPL8	Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 4 months)	£74/ha (increased from £43/ha)
UPL10	Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 8 months)	£102/ha (increased from £48/ha)
Code	Nutrient Management	Payment Rate
CNUM2	Legumes on improved grassland	£102/ha
CNUM3	Legume fallow	£532/ha (reduced from £593/ha)

Code	Organic	Payment Rate
OFC1	Organic conversion – improved permanent grassland	£187/ha
OFC2	Organic conversion – unimproved permanent grassland	£96/ha
OFC3	Organic conversion – rotational land	£298/ha
OFC4	Organic conversion – horticultural land	£874/ha
OFC5	Organic conversion – top fruit	£1,920/ha
OFM1	Organic land management – improved permanent grassland	£20/ha
OFM2	Organic land management – unimproved permanent grassland	£41/ha
OFM3	Organic land management – enclosed rough grazing	£97/ha
OFM4	Organic land management – rotational land	£132/ha
OFM5	Organic land management – horticultural land	£707/ha
OFM6	Organic land management – top fruit	£1,920/ha

Code	Precision Farming	Payment Rate
PRF1	Variable rate application of nutrients	£27/ha
PRF2	Camera or remote sensor guided herbicide spraying	£43/ha
PRF4	Mechanical robotic weeding	£150/ha

Code	Soil Health	Payment Rate
CSAM2	Multi-species winter cover crop	£129/ha
CSAM3	Herbal leys	£224/ha (reduced from £382/ha)
SOH1	No-till farming	£73/ha
SOH3	Multi-species summer-sown cover crop	£163/ha

Code	Species Recovery and Management	Payment Rate
SPM3	Keep native breeds on grazed habitats supplement (more than 80%)	£146/ha
SPM5	Keep native breeds on extensively managed habitats supplement (more than 80%)	£11/ha

Code	Waterbodies	Payment Rate
WBD1	Manage ponds	£257/pond (max 3 ponds/ha)
WBD2	Manage ditches	£4/100m (both sides)
WBD3	In-field grass-strips*	£765/ha
WBD4	Arable reversion to grassland with low fertiliser input	£489/ha
WBD6	Remove livestock from intensive grassland during the autumn and winter (outside SDAs)	£115/ha
WBD7	Remove livestock from grassland during the autumn and winter (SDAs)	£115/ha

SFI26 agreement can be worth more than £100,000 per year.

Each farm business can have only one SFI26 agreement.

Agreement holders will not be able to increase the area or value of rotational actions beyond what they included in Year 1. Farmers will still be

able to move rotational actions between fields to match their crop rotation.

* These actions are included in the 25% area limit cap.

As ever, the reality of DEFRA schemes is that they are more complex than is presented. There remains considerable cross-over between SFI and Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship and which way is better to go will depend on each individual farming business.

For professional advice regarding SFI and other rural grants and schemes, please contact one of our land agency teams:

North Lakes - 01228 406260 or [email protected]
County Durham - 0191 370 8530 or [email protected]
South Lakes & North Lancashire - 01539 721375 or [email protected]
Northumberland - 01434 303615 or [email protected]
North Yorkshire - 01609 710377 or [email protected]