Record Farmers Join SFI As Sustainability Funds Allocated
More than 50,000 farm businesses are benefitting from farming schemes and more money is being spent through the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) than ever
- SFI24 has reached its completion, and the Government are stopping accepting new SFI applications today
- Every penny in every existing SFI agreement will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications will be taken forward
With record numbers of farm businesses in farming schemes and the sustainable farming budget successfully allocated, the Government has today (Tuesday 11 March) stopped accepting new applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI24).
Every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will also be taken forward.
This Government inherited farming schemes which were underspent, meaning millions of pounds were not going to farming businesses. At the budget, the Government proudly secured the largest budget for sustainable food production in our country’s history, with £5 billion was committed in the farming budget over a two-year period.
As a result of the Government’s determination to get more farmers to participate, there is now a record 50,000 farm businesses and more than half of all farmed land is now managed under our schemes.
The largest of these schemes, SFI24, now has more than 37,000 multi-year live agreements and is not only delivering sustainable food production and nature’s recovery for today and the years ahead, but it is also putting money back into farmers pockets.
However, this Government inherited an uncapped scheme, despite a finite farming budget. The highest ever level of participation in SFI means the maximum limit has now been reached. Therefore, as SFI has reached its completion the Government is stopping accepting new SFI applications today.
Now is the right time for a reset: supporting farmers, delivering for nature and targeting public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature.
Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs Daniel Zeichner said:
This Government is proud to have set the biggest budget for sustainable food produce in history, to boost growth in rural communities and all across the UK, under our Plan for Change.
More farmers are now in schemes and more money is being spent through them than ever before. That is true today and will remain true tomorrow.
We have now successfully allocated the SFI24 budget as promised.
Environmental Land Management scheme agreements will remain in place, including SFI, and there will be a new and improved SFI on offer with details to follow the Spending Review. This will be underpinned by the Government’s cast iron commitment to food security, focusing on food production, creating more resilient farm businesses alongside supporting nature recovery.
The future SFI offer will build on what has made the current scheme effective. It will:
Deliver our vision of a sector with food production at its core, supporting less resilient farm businesses alongside nature recovery;
Ensure it delivers value for money for taxpayers alongside investing in sustainable food production and nature recovery;
Cap the budget and put in place strong budgetary controls so that SFI is affordable to the public purse;
Better target SFI, in a fair and orderly way, towards the priorities set out on food, farming and nature;
And, as the scheme is designed and evolving, listen to farmers feedback to ensure we learn and improve the scheme for the future.
The improved SFI scheme will be another step in this government’s New Deal for farmers to support growth and return farm businesses to profitability.
The Government recently announced a raft of new policies to help boost profits for farmers and will go further to ensure farming becomes more profitable for the future by backing British produce, protecting farmers in trade deals, improving supply chain fairness and reforming planning rules on farms to support food security.
The Seasonal Worker Visa Scheme has also been extended for 5 years, the government have committed £110 million in farming grants to improve productivity, trial new technologies and drive innovation in the sector and announced plans to invest over £200 million in a new National Biosecurity Centre to protect livestock from diseases.
As set out in the Plan for Change, the Government is focused on supporting our farmers, rural economic growth and boosting Britain’s food security and are going further to develop a 25-year farming roadmap to make the sector more profitable in the decades to come.
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/record-farmers-in-sfi-schemes-as-government-successfully-allocates-sustainable-farming-budget