What changed for SFI26
No substantive changes have been made to this action for SFI26 (compared with the SFI24 version).
SFI 2026 action
WBD1: Manage ponds
Requirements are unchanged from SFI24, with £3.2m paid across 3,260 agreements in 2025.
Unchanged from SFI24
Payment
£257 per pond per year, with a maximum of 3 ponds per hectare
Duration
3 years
Uptake in SFI23/24
3,260 agreements, £3.2m paid
How many farms have this action in SFI23/24?
3,260 agreements
13th of 71
£3.2m paid
24th of 71
12,400 items
1st of 3 item-based
Estimated payments in the 2025 calendar year, from Defra's CS and SFI release. These are agreements, not farms: one business can hold several, and Defra advises they cannot be summed across actions. Ranks compare the 71 actions that remain in SFI26, and area ranks only against actions measured in the same unit.
What the action involves
This action’s aim is that there’s a pond containing clear and clean water with:
- a range of semi-aquatic vegetation allowed to develop around the pond edge
- submerged and floating pond plants
The purpose of this is to:
- increase biodiversity
- help improve water quality
- provide habitats for native aquatic species
What you must do
You must manage the pond in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim, including:
- controlling scrub around the pond edge by lightly cutting it or grazing it with livestock to encourage a range of semi-aquatic vegetation to develop
- trying to avoid livestock trampling and poaching the pond edge which can make the water turbid (cloudy)
You must not:
- deepen or change the pond’s original profile, including filling it in
- artificially introduce plants or animals to the pond, including fish or waterfowl
- allow supplementary feeding of fish
- feed waterfowl – if there’s public access to the pond, try to discourage wildfowl feeding
- add dyes to the water
When to do it
You must do this action from its start date, throughout each year of its 3-year duration.
Evidence to keep
You must keep evidence to show what you’ve done to complete this action, such as:
- pond management operations at a land parcel level and associated invoices
- photographs and other documentation
If it’s not clear that you’ve done this action in a way that could reasonably be expected to achieve its aim, we may ask for this evidence. You must supply the evidence if we ask for it.
Eligibility, land types and admin detail
Where you can do it
You can do this action on eligible ponds located on land that’s:
- an eligible land type (as defined in section 5.1.1 ‘Eligible land types’ in the SFI26 scheme information)
- registered with an eligible land cover on your digital maps
- declared with a land use code which is compatible with the eligible land cover
An eligible pond for this action must be:
- more than 25 square metres up to 2 ha (at the point you apply for an SFI agreement)
- under your management control – this includes the whole of the pond edge and the water in the pond
The following ponds are not eligible for this action:
- ponds used for wastewater, treated effluent discharge activities or road drainage
- sediment ponds, basins, traps or lagoons
- balancing ponds
- ponds which are largely or fully synthetically lined
- ponds which are likely to need fully draining during this action’s duration, such as irrigation ponds and fire water ponds
- aquaculture ponds
Rotational or static
This action is static. This means you must do it at the same location each year of this action’s duration.
What you can do on the same land
Actions and options you can put on the same area of a land parcel, by scheme.
SFI 2026
No SFI 2026 revenue actions
SFI 2024
No SFI 2024 revenue actions
SFI 2023
No SFI 2023 revenue actions
CS Higher Tier, 2025+
No CSHT actions
CS options
No CS revenue options
Environmental Stewardship
No ES revenue options
Planning an SFI26 application
Build the plan field by field, and see the clashes before you apply
SFI Shepherd adds actions to your fields from your RPA maps, flags conflicts with SFI and Countryside Stewardship agreements you already hold, tracks the 25% limited-area total across the whole holding, and exports a summary ready for the RPA portal. Draft as many versions as you like and compare them side by side.