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

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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.

Available Actions in 2024

Code	SFI Action	Annual payment
Actions for Soil Health
CSAM1	Assess soil, test soil organic matter and produce a soil management plan	£6/ha and an additional payment of £97 per agreement
CSAM2	Multi-species winter cover crops	£129/ha
CSAM3	Herbal leys	£382/ha
SOH1	No-till farming	£73/ha
SOH2	Multi-species spring-sown cover crop	£163/ha
SOH3	Multi-species summer-sown cover crop	£163/ha
SOH4	Winter cover following maize crops	£203/ha
Actions for moorland
CMOR1	Assess moorland and produce a written record	£10.60/ha and an additional payment of £272 per agreement
UPL1	Moderate livestock grazing on moorland	£20/ha
UPL2	Low livestock grazing on moorland	£53/ha
UPL3	Limited livestock grazing on moorland	£66/ha
UPL4	Supplement: Keep cattle and ponies on moorland (minimum 20% GLU)	£7/ha
UPL5	Supplement: Keep cattle and ponies on moorland (minimum 70% GLU)	£18/ha
UPL6	Supplement: Keep cattle and ponies on moorland (100% GLU)	£23/ha
UPL7	Shepherding livestock on moorland (no required stock removal period)	£33/ha
UPL8	Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 4 months)	£43/ha
UPL9	Shepherding livetsock on moorland (remove stock for at least 6 months)	£45/ha
UPL10	Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 8 months)	£48/ha
Actions for boundary features
CHRW1	Assess and record hedgerow condition	£5 per 100 metres – one side
CHRW2	Manage hedgerows	£13 per 100 metres – one side
CHRW3	Maintain or establish hedgerow trees	£10 per 100 metres – both sides
BND1	Maintain dry stone walls	£27 per 100m - both sides
BND2	Maintain earth banks or stone-faced hedgebanks	£11 per 100m - one side
Actions for integrated pest management
CIPM1	Asssess integrated pest management and produce a plan	£1,129 for assessment & plan
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	£45/ha
Actions for nutrient management
CNUM1	Assesss nutrient management & produce a review report	£652 for assessnebt & report
CNUM2	Legumes on improved grassland	£102/ha
CNUM3	Legume fallow	£593/ha
Actions for farmland wildlife on arable and horticultural land
CAHL1	Pollen and nectar flower mix	£739/ha
CAHL2	Winter bird food on arable and horticultural land	£853/ha
CAHL3	Grassy field corners and blocks	£590/ha
AHW1	Bumblebird mix	£747/ha
AHW2	Supplementary winter bird food (*maximum 1 tonne for every 2 hectares of CAHL2)	£732 per tonne*
AHW3	Beetle Banks	£764/ha
AHW4	Skylark Plota (*minimum 2 plots)	£11 per plot*
AHW5	Nestling 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
AHW12	Manage woodland edges on arable land	£428/ha
Actions for farmland wildlife and habitats on grassland
CIGL1	Take improved grassland field corners or blocks out of management	£333/ha
CIGL2	Winter bird food on improved grassland	£515/ha
CIGL3	Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs	£151/ha
GRH1	Manage rough grazing for birds	£121/ha
GRH6	Manage priority habitat species-rich grassland	£646/ha
GRH7	Supplement:Haymaking	£157/ha
GRH8	Supplement: Haymaking (late cut)	£187/ha
GRH10	Supplement: Lenient grazing	£28/ha
GRH11	Supplement: Cattle grazing (non-moorland)	£59/ha
SCR1	Create scrub and open habitat mosaics	£588/ha
SCR2	Manage scrub and open habitat mosaics	£350/ha
Actions for buffer strips

CAHL4	4m to 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 to 24m watercourse buffer strip on cultivated land	£707/ha
BFS2	Buffer in-field ponds on arable land	£681/ha
BFS3	Buffer in-field ponds on improved grassland	£311/ha
BFS4	Protect in-field trees on arable land	£553/ha
BFS5	Protect in-field trees on intensive grassland	£295/ha
BFS6	6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercourses	£742/ha
Actions for low input grassland
AGF1	Maintain very low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land	£248/ha
AGF2	Maintain low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive land	£385/ha
Actions for heritage
HEF1	Maintain weatherproof traditional farm or forestry buildings	£5 per sq m
HEF2	Maintain weatherproof traditional farm or forestry buildings in remote areas	£8 per sq m
HEF5	Control scrub on historic and archaeological features	£215/ha
HEF6	Manage historic and archaeological features	£55/ha
HEF8	Maintain designed or engineered waterbodies	£2,512/ha
Actions for Organic Farming

Actions for Organic Farming
OFC1	Organic conversion - improved permanent grassland (*maximum of 2 consecutive years )	£187/ha
OFC2	Organic conversion - unimproved permanent grassland (*maximum of 2 consecutive years)	£96/ha
OFC3	Organic conversion - rotational land (*maximum of 2 consecutive years)	£298/ha
OFC4	Organic conversion - horticultural land (*maximum of 2 consecutive years)	£874/ha
OFC5	Organic conversion - top fruit (*maximum of 3 consecutive years)	£1,920/ha
OFM1	Organic land management - improved permanent grasslabd	£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
OFA1	Overwinter stubble (organic land)	£264/ha
OFA3	Supplementary winter bird food (organic land) (*maximum 1 tonne for every 2 hectares of CALH2)	£935/tonne
OFA6	Undersown cereal crop (organic land)	£380/ha
Actions for Precision Farming
PRF1	Variable rate application of nutrients	£27/ha
PRF2	Camera or remote sensor guided herbicide spraying	£43/ha
PRF3	Non-mechanical robotic weeding	£101/ha
PRF4	Mechanical robotic weeding	£150/ha
Actions for species recovery and management
SPM2	Supplement: Keep native breeds on grazed habitats (50-80%)	£ 92/ha
SPM3	Supplement: Keep native breeds on grazed habitats (more than 80%)	£146/ha
SPM4	Supplement: Keep native breeds on extsively managed habitats (50-80%)	£7/ha
SPM5	Supplement: Keep native breeds on extensively managed habitats (more than 80%)	£11/ha

Actions for Waterbodies
WBD1	Manage ponds (*maximum of 3 ponds per ha)	£257 per pond*
WBD2	Manage ditches	£4/100m for both sides
WBD3	In-field grass strips	£765/ha
WBD4	Arable reversion to grassland with low fertiliser input	£489/ha
WBD5	Manage intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse	£311/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
WBD8	Manage grassland to reduce nutrient levels in groundwater	£396/ha
WBD9	Supplement: Nil fertiliser	£156/ha

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]