Farmers demonstrating in Whitehall, November 2024. Photo Workers.
The government has closed a key farming support scheme without notice. On 11 March it announced that the Sustainable Farming Incentive Scheme (SFI) was immediately closed to new applications.
The scheme, the centrepiece of post-Brexit agricultural policy, was designed to encourage farmers to manage land sustainably to benefit the environment and support food production. This decision has created uncertainty for farmers.
Around 45 per cent of British farms are unsure where their applications are, disrupting planning and spring sowings of arable crops, and forcing farmers to leave land to lie fallow – all reported to the parliamentary committee for environment, food and rural affairs on 1 April.
Farmers Weekly estimated that 4,000 applications were still under review by DEFRA when the scheme closed. Scheme documentation had previously suggested that at least six weeks’ notice would be given before any deadline; many will have missed out.
The Soil Association pointed out that the closure of the scheme would stop farms converting to organic production. Farmers need SFI support for the two-year conversion period before they can market their produce as organic.
Farmers are not the only ones affected. Small-scale vineyards, only recently eligible for support when a 5-hectare threshold was removed, are once more shut out from government support. They had been promised financial recognition for nature-friendly practices, such as £798 per hectare for wildflower cover between rows of vines.
According to WineGB, the national association for the expanding wine industry, under 20 per cent of small vineyards successfully applied for and received sustainable grant funding.