Is SFI Really Going To Be “Simple?”

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Holly Hawker (Chippenham)

A complete ‘U-Turn’ on the long-awaited Sustainable Farming Incentive guidance was announced at the Lincolnshire Show on 21st June.

Forget ‘Standards’, ‘levels’ and ‘stacking’; the newly designed SFI scheme promises to be simpler and easier to apply for and manage, with a “Pick and Mix” range of activities on offer that farmers can receive funding for.  There is going to be a wider range of actions available to apply for from August this year, and we are told you can combine as many of these as you would like, with no minimum level of land required and, to help pay those consultancy fees, a £20 per hectare management bonus!

Finally, I hear you cry, clear and helpful guidance from the RPA and some well thought out, environmentally conscientious but still practical farm-level actions.

But wait, what if you’re already in an SFI scheme?  Well, that’s going to be cancelled.  Sorry.  And what if you are in an existing stewardship scheme?  Well then you can only apply for certain SFI options that don’t conflict with the stewardship options currently on that land (spoiler alert: there are a lot of options for each action that apply as double funding!)

So, is this likely to be AS “simple” as they say it is?

Undoubtedly, the “does what it says on the tin” attitude of selecting actions without the worry of having to conform to all of the other actions within a standard is going to make selecting and designing schemes simpler, yes.  For example; someone wanting to grow legume crops can now do so on whatever land area they choose, they are not tied into also maintaining a certain amount of over winter green cover (which is an example of how the previous ‘standards’ worked; to get one thing, you had to agree to another).

However, for those forward-thinking enough to already be in an environmental scheme, good understanding of the conflicting options and eligibility criteria is going to be vital, and careful analysis of which scheme is going to be more suitable still needs to be done.  Mostly, it appears that the payment rates under SFI match, but do not exceed, that of the existing Countryside Stewardship Scheme.

SFI applications have now closed but will reopen, under the new design, in August.

Contact Holly at hollyhawker@fcgagric.com or your local FCG Office, to see how SFI could benefit your farming practices and your pocket.  

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