£253m of SFI26 money fully allocated in hours
CLA criticises scramble and demands Defra provides clear guidance
Window 2 of SFI26 has closed after its entire £253 million budget was allocated within hours of applications opening.
The whole budget was allocated within six hours, with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) now processing applications.
It was the second window of this year's Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme and was open to all, after the first was limited to smaller farms and those without existing Environmental Land Management (ELM) agreements.
The CLA said the huge demand was not surprising and raised concerns that many farmers had been excluded, impacting their ability to boost nature and build business resilience.
'A scramble'
Country Land and Business Association (CLA) Deputy President Joe Evans said:
"We have always been clear that in this round of SFI, there was insufficient budget allocated to enable farmers to continue delivering for the environment on behalf of society."
This has been a scramble for thousands of farmers desperately trying not to be left behind and we urge Defra to provide clear guidance to farmers who – despite their best efforts – will be unlucky and fail to secure an SFI26 agreement
If you receive an agreement offer, make sure you accept it within 30 calendar days, or the offer will be withdrawn.
Details on next year’s SFI offer will be published "in due course", Defra said.
Who applied?
Approximately 12,200 applications were submitted during window 2. Against a budget of £253 million, this means the average agreement value applied for was approximately £20,700.
More than 8,800 of those farmers have an ELM revenue agreement expiring on or before 28 February 2027.
Over 1,100 who applied in window 2 are farmers who don’t have an existing ELM revenue agreement, Defra said.