Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023

• SFI 2023 expands the range of actions available for environmental management on farm – the offer will now include 23 actions covering Integrated Pest Management, nutrient management, hedgerows, soil health and farm biodiversity
• SFI 2023 offer designed to give farmers more flexibility – each action will be available on a ‘pick and mix’ basis, so you will be able to choose the combinations of actions and areas of land that work for you
• There is no minimum or maximum area the needs to be entered
• You will be able to combine more SFI actions and other environmental land management options, such as Countryside Stewardship (CS), on either the same area of land or a different area in the same land parcel
• Although a three-year scheme, tenants with less than 3 years left or those with a rolling tenancy can apply (on the assumption that they will continue farming the land over the three-year period)
• In addition to the options picked, there is a management payment of up to £1000 (£20/ha up to 50ha) to cover the costs of taking part in the scheme

Other things to note…

Applications are expected to open in August 2023, with a closing date announced soon after.

SFI will not immediately include any payments for capital items to help you complete the actions. However, you can access one-off payments to buy equipment or other capital items from existing offers, such as Countryside Stewardship capital grants

If you applied for the SFI 2022 standards before DEFRA temporarily closed applications on 21 June 2023, and you haven’t already entered into an SFI standards agreement, an agreement will be offered if your application is eligible. You can either accept or reject it.

DEFRA will contact SFI 2022 agreement holders to explain how they can fully benefit from the SFI 2023 offer. Farmers with existing agreements for the SFI 2022 standards should read the SFI scheme information for existing SFI 2022 standards agreement holders. That contains the requirements you must follow if you’ve entered into an SFI 2022 standards agreement.

For full details see the SFI 2023 Handbook or to discuss further, contact Carol Johnson at HNR

01434 607 028 / 07753693111

cjohnson@hexhammart.co.uk