Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

As the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) continues to be phased out, it is more important than ever for farmers to actively seek alternative sources of funding available through Defra.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) has been a key source of agricultural funding in England since it launched in 2022 and has proved an attractive prospect for farmers.

Until Defra closed the scheme to new applicants on 11 March 2025, it was a logical choice for farm businesses given its flexibility and regular payments.

What’s now important for existing agreement holders, is to ensure that they are maximising their scheme value at the point of their rotational declaration. Many agreements under the SFI 2023 offer can increase existing SFI actions, uncapped. Expanded offer (SFI 2024) agreements can also be increased in certain circumstances. By levering all the schemes to their full potential, environmental returns per acre could be maximised, enhancing the value to agreement holders.

The list of options, complemented most farm management practices.

Our Environmental scheme management service can help you manage the day-to-day operations of all your SFI agreements.

The SFI has offered a more flexible approach than previous schemes, such as Environmental Stewardship.

For farm businesses with agreements, the system of quarterly payments is attractive for cashflow.

Options have been tailored to protect food quality and security, soil health, and included some of those that were available under Countryside Stewardship (CS). Read more about Higher-Tier countryside stewardship.