Following the opening and subsequent closure of the second application window for the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 (SFI26), industry is calling for additional funds to be made available to producers.
The second application window for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ (Defra) SFI26 funding closed at 3.48pm on Tuesday 22nd September, just hours after it opened.
The £233 million window was open to eligible farmers in England, and for many businesses seeking to enter or renew existing agreements ending this autumn and winter, it was the first opportunity to secure continuity through the new ‘apply early’ route. NSA had urged sheep farmers to apply promptly, but said that few could have expected the entire budget to go within one working day.
Phil Stocker, NSA chief executive, commented: “I am highly concerned by this situation. It may well be dressed up as a sign of the success of and demand for SFI, but it is yet another smash and grab raid which will exclude many farmers and deny them the continuity their businesses need. We simply cannot expect farmers to live with this level of uncertainty when they are running businesses built on long-term decisions.
“We have no idea yet how many applications will be accepted, or how many farmers will be left out. Those left out will have no opportunity to carry on with much of the environmental work already in place on their farms, and they will be left with a huge gap in their budgets which will be nigh on impossible to fill.
“NSA put a significant amount of effort into supporting Defra with scheme design, and I am devastated by the mess England now finds itself in through inadequate funding and poor budgetary control. To have the nation’s foundation farming and environmental scheme operate in this way is unacceptable.”
“Government must wake up to the importance of farming and food production, and to the fact it needs support.”
Phil Stocker, NSA
Stocker added: “SFI may be focused on buying environmental goods, but farms work within long-term planning structures. They cannot carry this level of uncertainty over whether they will be rewarded for public goods or not. A scheme of this kind should not be competitive. There is a complete mismatch between Defra holding a fixed budget, which is gone once it is spent, and English farmers needing a base income foundation which allows sustainable farming to be delivered viably.
“There is still a way for Government to rescue this situation, but it needs an urgent injection of additional funds, not another attempt to find money by moving existing budgets around. Robbing Peter to pay Paul will not do. Government must wake up to the importance of farming and food production, and to the fact it needs support. Full viability cannot be achieved without restructuring the way money flows through supply chains, or without serious additional food inflation.
“England was said to be pioneering a world-leading new approach to agricultural support. It has become a laughingstock; at the very moment we are waking up to the fragility and importance of food security.”
NSA said it would continue to work with Defra and the Rural Payments Agency to establish how many sheep farming businesses have been left without an agreement, and what provision will be made for them ahead of the SFI offer planned for 2027.
NFU calls for answers
National Farmers’ Union (NFU) vice-president Robyn Munt stated: “The rapid uptake of the scheme comes as no surprise. We have made the demand clear to Defra for some time. Its closure in less than six hours shows the scale of demand there is from farmers to deliver for the environment and to invest in farm resilience.
“The current cashflow pressures facing farmers and growers only exacerbates that demand as they look for certainty and clarity for the year ahead. But those that missed out have been left with even greater uncertainty as the sector doesn’t have a commitment from Government for SFI27 and access to Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier. We know the uncertainty and financial pressure this creates for those businesses.
“We have warned Defra for months that the available budget would not meet demand of those farmers wanting to deliver for the environment and sustainable farming. The additional funding announced by the Prime Minister in August was welcome, but with thousands of agreements ending this year, it was clear that it wasn’t enough to plug the gap in the budget needed and it fails many who have been committed to such schemes for many years.
“Yet again, Defra has created a position where there are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in the sector based purely on the speed of pressing a button. This comes at the same time as the department says it wants a reset with the farming industry. Instead, it has further damaged business confidence that is already at rock bottom.”
