Applications for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI26) will open in June this year. The details were announced by Defra Secretary Emma Reynolds at the NFU conference in mid-February.
The SFI26 offer is the result of stakeholder consultation which informed the overall options and proposals. The proposition will be a more streamlined process with reduced complexity while offering a variety of actions for all farm types.
There will be a total of 71 actions – down from 102 in the previous SF124 offer and the intention is that more farms will be able to take part and benefit from the incentive.
There will be a single cap per farm business at £100,000; each farm business can have only one SFI26 agreement and there will be tighter restrictions on the ability to increase rotational actions from year to year. In addition, SFI actions can only be applied to 25% of the total agricultural area of the farm.
Eligibility rules apply and farmers should have at least 3 hectares of agricultural land; this threshold is in line with the recent Farming Profitability Review.
The first application window will open in June 2026 (exact date to be confirmed); the intention is that it will remain open for approximately two months however it may close sooner if demand is high and the budget fully allocated. Eligibility will include small farms and farms without an existing environmental land management (ELM) revenue agreement.
For full details on how your farm can benefit and for help preparing an early application to maximise your chance of securing payments, please contact Katie Hilton or call 01223 271959.