SFI 2026 Clues – Jan ’26

The Farming Minister, Dame Angela Eagle, has provided some further clues on Defra’s plans for the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFI) in 2026.  Speaking in front of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) committee on 16th December, the Minister outlined that the new scheme was expected to ‘go live’ from April 2026.  However, considering details of the 2026 SFI were meant to be available ‘in the summer’ and nothing has been seen to date, we might treat Defra timescales with a degree of suspicion.  Also, as has been seen with Countryside Stewardship (CS) the definition of a scheme being ‘open’ can be quite slippery – schemes have often been opened only to select groups of applicants.  Thus the SFI might not be a universal offering, even if it does open in the spring. 

Dame Angela also provided some insight into what the revised scheme could look like;

• targetted at smaller farms – the Minister stated that she did not like the fact that ‘25% of SFI funding goes to 4% of farms’.  Practically, this might see limits or caps on funding under new SFI agreements
• a simplified application process – whilst this would be welcomed, simplification is promised in almost every new iteration of agri-environment schemes 
• a less ‘piecemeal’ approach – Dame Angela stated that Defra believed that it has ‘over-bought some things such as herbals leys’.  This could simply see some options being area-limited or the payment rates reduced.  A more radical approach would be to require applicants to agree to ‘packages’ or measures – as was the case under the SFI Pilot and the previous Farmland Options under CS  
• more transparency – this seems primarily about providing the industry with greater clarity around uptake and budget spend in real time.

The budget for SFI will be the key issue.  It is not surprising that the scheme will start in April at the earliest, as this pushes spending into the next financial year.  However, with so much of the budget committed to existing SFI and CS schemes the ‘headroom’ to offer new SFI agreements in 2026/27 seems limited.  

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