Details of the expanded and improved Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer available to farmers from July have been recently published by the Government.
The new SFI offer will be open to new entrants for the first time (those who never claimed through BPS) and will initially comprise of 102 actions, including over 20 new options to support more sustainable food production.
Payments will include options for precision farming, agroforestry, a new and expanded offer for upland farmers and more actions for tenants on shorter term contracts.
More than 50 actions from the Mid-Tier Countryside Stewardship will merge into the SFI to simplify the process. A number of actions have had their durations reduced from 5 to 3 years to align with the needs of tenant farmers.
Expressions of interest are now open for those wishing to apply through the controlled roll out, ahead of the offer being fully self-service from July 2024.
The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) will then chose a number of individuals to test the service and submit an application before they open the new offer to the wider sector, which is available to all from 22nd July 2024.
The RPA have placed a limit on the total area of land that a business could enter 6 specific, non-food producing options into. That limit is 25% and has been increased to include these options:
- WBD3 – in-field grass strips
- AHW1 – bumble bird mix
- AHW9 – unharvested cereal headland
- AHW11 – cultivated areas for arable plants
If you are interested in making a Sustainable Farming Incentive application then please do not hesitate to contact our Rural Professionals team today on 01364 646 177.
