What the action involves
This action’s aim is that you assess your current approach to nutrient usage and effectively plan how to:
- manage your nutrient usage more efficiently and effectively
- ptimise your use of organic sources of crop nutrition
When to do it
You must make sure that a FACTS qualified adviser visits your farm to:
- complete the NM assessment and help you produce a written NM review report within the first 12 months of your SFI agreement
- reassesses your nutrient use and needs for your land and review your NM review
report in each subsequent year of your SFI agreement
How to do it It’s up to you how you complete this action, as long as you do it in a way that can reasonably be expected to achieve this action’s aim.
You may find it helpful to read the voluntary guidance on how to complete a nutrient management assessment and produce a review report, but you do not have to follow it.
What evidence to keep You must keep:
- a written record of your NM review report, including the NM assessment
- evidence that the adviser is a FACTS qualified adviser, such as their name and
BASIS or FACTS registration number.
You must supply this evidence if we ask for it.
The same action appears in the other schemes under a different code. The work is broadly the same; the rate and the length of the commitment are not.
- SFI 2024 — CNUM1: £652 for the assessment and review report per year, over 3 years
Where you can do it
You can do this action on all agricultural land located below the moorland line.
NUM1 is an agreement level SFI action. This means you do not enter specific areas of land into this action in your SFI application. The assessment and nutrient management review report should cover all of the relevant areas of your farm.
Once you’ve included this action in an SFI agreement, you cannot apply for it again until that 3- year agreement ends. You cannot apply for it in multiple SFI agreements.
To apply for this action, at least 1 land parcel needs to be linked to your SBI, so it shows on your digital maps in the Rural Payments service. Other land management actions or options you can do with NUM1 The table below sets out which other SFI actions, CS management options, ES revenue options and SFI pilot standards you can do with NUM1. This is only possible if the requirements explained under ‘Where you can do this action’ above are met.
Scheme Action or option codes that can be done with NUM1 SFI 2023 All SFI actions, except MOR1 CS All CS options ES All ES options SFI pilot All SFI pilot standards
What to do You must arrange for a member of the BASIS Professional Register who’s qualified under the Fertiliser Advisers Certification and Training Scheme (a ‘FACTS qualified adviser’) to visit your farm to:
- assess your current nutrient use and needs for your farm
- identify and discuss opportunities to increase efficiency of your nutrient usage, and maximise the use of natural sources of crop nutrients on that land
- help you produce a written nutrient management (NM) review report
You must make sure that the FACTS qualified adviser does what’s required above.
If you’re a FACTS qualified adviser, as defined above, you can complete this action yourself.
If you already have a written NM review report, informed by an NM assessment, carried out by a FACTS qualified adviser, you can use it to meet this action if it was written within the last 12 months.
If you need to take soil samples on areas within a land parcel containing historic or archaeological features, including scheduled monuments, you must:
- request an SFI Historic Environment Farm Environment Record (SFI HEFER), as explained in the information about historic and archaeological features (section
- meet the requirements for taking soil samples on these areas, as explained in the information about completing SFI actions on land containing historic and archaeological features (section 4.3.2)
