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๐ ๐ SFI UPDATE: How much has been spent on SFI according to newly released DEFRA figures? ... ๐ค๐จ
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has just released the latest stats on take-up (to 1st July) of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (hashtag#SFI - the main part of the government's revamped farm payments scheme which rewards farmers with 'public money for public goods'). Since my previous update post, there have been a few big changes in the adoption rates across various actions. Below I run through some of the highlights
๐ Uptake continues to grow:
๐ฐ Overall SFI annual value: +65% to ยฃ492.9m. (That's still only 20% of the ยฃ2.4bn farm budget. Legacy 'de-linked' payments, based on claims in the old BPS system, still remain the biggest part of farm support as SFI is phased in. Presumably the 2025-27 reductions to de-linked payments will be decided each year based on SFI take-up to ensure the overall budget isn't re-claimed by HM Treasury)
๐ฅ Overall number of agreements: +67% to 23,200
๐ Devon, East Anglia and my home patch of North Yorkshire continue to have highest uptake with 25% of all agreements between them. (DEFRA helpfully note that 'Inner London - East' still lags the field with 0 agreements ๐)
๐ Big Winners:
The 3 actions below remain most lucrative, and still represent c.43% of all SFI payments:
๐ SAM3 (herbal leys): +67% to ยฃ111.5m
๐ง AHL2 (winter bird food): +66% to ยฃ54.3m
๐ฅ NUM3 (legume fallow): +69% to ยฃ30.1m
๐ Planning actions continue to represent a popular 'easy-win', with 16% of the budget (ยฃ80.4m)
๐ชฑ SAM1 is included in ยพ agreements (17,000) covering 2.65m hectares (that's about 30% of the 8.8m ha of English farmland). SAM1 requires farms to create an annual Soil Management Plan. Soil Benchmark are proud that since we launched in November we've become the go-to tool for these: 1,600 farms covering 438,000ha have already used our Soil Sage platform to create their Plans. Head to plan.soilbenchmark.com to get started; it only requires an SBI number.
๐ Worth nothing that all these figures still just cover the original hashtag#SFI23 actions, as the updated actions in the hashtag#SFI24 offer only went live later in July (apparently the first agreements have now been signed).
๐ Looking Ahead:
Momentum behind SFI continues to build (helped by Steve Reed committing to not 'overturn the apple cart'), despite some glitches with SFI24 roll-out. It has many more actions than SFI23 (104 vs 24). Maybe this means more flexibility for farms to tailor agreements to their needs, but I suspect the main winners will be the consultants now needed to decipher the extra jargon.
๐ฒ One final (really very nerdy) note: In their latest budget, DEFRA quietly 'reprofiled' ยฃ200m which it looks like they took from the 23/24 capital grant pot and might put into SFI if take-up is good. Details here: https://rb.gy/mlhueq - perhaps George, Abi or Janet can explain if I've understood correctly ๐คท
Full data: https://rb.gy/1a1c58
