At yesterday’s Oxford Farming Conference, Mark Spencer, Farming Minister of the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) has encouraged farmers to sign up for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in England as they will receive up to £1,000 each as a management payment.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is the first of three new environmental schemes introduced under the Agricultural Transition Plan alongside the Local Nature Recovery (which we now understand will be an enhanced version of Countryside Stewardship) and Landscape Recovery.
To further incentivise a rural business to take up the Agri-environment schemes, the budget for Countryside Stewardship (CS) is also being increased, with an average of 10% more available for revenue options (to apply to new and existing agreements) and 48% more for capital items (to apply to new agreements only).
On the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), the new management payment is worth £20/ha on the first 50ha of any application to acknowledge the administrative costs of participation and to attract small-scale and tenant farmers who are currently under-represented in the scheme. Currently, the SFI offers three distinct “standards”: improved grassland soils, improved arable soils and a moorland standard. It has been confirmed that the new £20/ha management payment would be backdated, to benefit those already in the scheme.
On Countryside Stewardship, the increased revenue payments will benefit both new and existing agreement holders by an average of 10%, starting from 1 January 2023, to help counter rising costs. Click here to find details on revenue options payment rate changes from 1 January 2023. Click here for details of the increased capital item payments from 5 January 2023.
Meanwhile, capital and annual maintenance payments for the England Woodland Creation Offer (EWCO) and Tree Health Pilot (THP) will also be updated this year.
For those looking for funding to protect and improve the land they manage the application window for new Capital Only grants is now open and will remain so all year round, until the scheme becomes over-subscribed. Those open include Countryside Stewardship (CS) Capital Grants, CS Capital Grants (SFI pilot), Higher Tier Capital Grants, Woodland Protection and Infrastructure Grants (capital items that support improving the management of woodland and to help manage the impact of beaver behaviours), Woodland Management Plan Grants and Woodland Tree Health Grants. Click here for more details.
CS Higher Tier, CS Mid-Tier and Wildlife Offers will open for applications later in the year, for agreements to commence 1 January 2024.
Our Agribusiness team, which operates across our 29 offices in the UK, can use our extensive experience to advise you on the most appropriate schemes for your farming system, and assist with the application process.
It is crucial that farmers and landowners looking to apply get informed advice from the start to increase their chances of success, so we would encourage anyone interested to get in touch.
Find out more about our agribusiness consultancy services by clicking here.
