Failures of SFI & the importance of consistency

It was back in 2023 when I first applied for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). – It was the first application launched after the SFI pilot. I created what I would like to think was a holistic plan that would provide a secure basic income for the farm, maximise benefits as part of my IPM (Integrated Pest Management) and Nutrient & Soil Management Plan and do the most possible for nature recovery. I designed it so that it would work in partnership with my Countryside Stewardship (CS) which I had also just applied for. My application was accepted, and I set about putting it into practice… Then, just a few weeks later I received a letter from the Rural Payment Agency (RPA). It had been decided that SFI in its current form had to change and my SFI agreement had been cancelled, and I had to start all over again once SFI 2024 opened.

Fast forward to 2024, and I am now no longer a farm manager, but an advisor. SFI 2024 is being rolled out and Countryside Stewardship is open, all was fitting together quite nicely until…. A phone call from a Natural England contact: “It is not public yet, but tomorrow the government are announcing the immediate closing of CS”. And so, it did. The government blogs stated that some version of CS would reopen for summer 2025. It’s summer 2025 now and still no news.

Fast forward again to just a few months ago, and at 17:00 one evening, the now new government announces that all SFI applications will be closed. Shutting the door on thousands of farmers. We have yet no idea when they will reopen and in what way. Looking back there was warning signs. I previously had successfully transferred clients from CS to SFI, but this was refused for one of my clients. The RPA refused to let me know why, just that it was no longer possible. A few weeks later the closure of SFI was announced. To me, it is now obvious the RPA already knew there would be no SFI to transfer to.

Sustainable and resilient agriculture is mostly all about future planning. For example, a good crop rotation could extend 7 years. Changes to soil management may not become visible for over 5 years and the results of an agroforestry project may not become economically evident for 25 years. Even day to day farm operations need to be considered with long-term lenses; The purchasing and leasing of new equipment and even managing income, with harvest occurring only once a year, and livestock rarely more than once to twice a year.

SFI and other schemes were designed to work together to give farmers long term stability and reward by providing public money for public good. Yet, the schemes barely ever run concurrently, and are continuously closed with no warning. I am not making a political statement either, as this has occurred through two governments.  I thought the whole idea of SFI was that it would remain open and could be added to – This meant farmers could start small, laying the foundations for comprehensive change, and build up. Yet, this has not been possible. No long term or even medium-term planning is conceivable like this, with many farmers choosing for example to apply for low input grassland, with the intention of applying for native cattle breed payments later once cattle arrived. Now, with cattle on order, there is no way of knowing if the SFI money will even be available, completely jeopardising the entire business.

Even those who committed to the SFI pilot, ran trials and focus groups for the Department of Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), and were voluntarily inspected by the RPA, are now left out of pocket as their SFI pilot did not run out until just after the SFI scheme was closed. They never had the chance to apply. It has been promised to them they would be able to apply, but many month down the line this has not materialised, and I doubt very much their will be back payments.

With an increasingly unpredictable climate and market, the last thing farmers need is unpredictable schemes. The aim of the Society for Sustainable Agriculture is to offer sustainable decisions for business resilience. In this instance, what is required for business resilience is reliability and consistency. If this cannot be achieved through the government (and the jury is very much still out at the moment), then perhaps the private sector will need to step in.

If you are a farmer affected by what was discussed above,  or a private company looking for new opportunities in natural capital, or need to meet your corporate reporting requirements, go to www.societyforsustainableagriculture.org and get in touch.