Guidance

Sustainable Farming Incentive: full guidance

Guidance about how the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) will work for farmers.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is the first of 3 new environmental schemes being introduced under the Agricultural Transition Plan. The other 2 schemes are Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.

SFI aims to help farmers manage land in a way that improves food production and is more environmentally sustainable.

Farmers will be paid to provide public goods, such as:

  • improved water quality
  • biodiversity
  • climate change mitigation
  • animal health and welfare

In 2022, SFI aims to:

  • encourage actions that improve soil health
  • recognise how moorland provides benefits to the public (public goods)
  • improve animal health and welfare by helping farmers with the costs of veterinary advice for livestock
Published 30 March 2022
Last updated 311 MarchApril 2022 + show all updates
  1. Corrected typos. Added links. Clarified that SFI HEFER is not available until SFI applications open. Under "How an SFI standards agreement interacts with other funding schemes": 2 paragraphs removed about private sector schemes and deleted all information on other funding schemes.

  2. Clarified timings of the soil organic matter retesting in the two soils standards.

  3. First published.