What the action involves
This action’s aim is that you:
- understand the condition of your soil
- effectively plan how to increase the long-term health, productivity and resilience of your soil
When to do it
For the soil assessment and soil management plan, you must:
- complete the soil assessment and produce the written soil management plan within the first 12 months of your SFI agreement
- review the soil management plan in each subsequent year of your 3-year SFI agreement, adding any new soil analyses
For the SOM testing, each year of your 3-year SFI agreement you must:
- make sure you’ve tested the SOM on all the land parcels entered into this action within the last 5 years
- retest that land if your existing SOM test results reach 5 years old
If the timing meets the requirements above, you can do the SOM testing at the same time as your other routine soil testing required in the farming rules for water.
If you enter land into this action which has not been tested for SOM within the last 5 years, you should try to do the SOM testing on that land during the first 12 months of your SFI agreement.
If the laboratory that tests your soil samples does not have capacity to do the tests during the first 12 months of your SFI agreement, you must:
- get the tests done as soon as possible
- make sure you’ve tested the SOM on all of these land parcels within the last 5 years by the end of your SFI agreement
- keep evidence of why it was not possible to complete the tests in the first 12 months, so you can provide it to us if we ask for it
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 assess soil, produce a soil management plan and test soil organic matter, but you do not have to follow it.
You can record the soil management plan on paper or digitally.
What evidence to keep You must keep:
- the written record of your soil management plan, including your soil assessment
- the SOM test results
You must supply this evidence when 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 — CSAM1: £6 per hectare (ha) per year and £97 per SFI agreement per year, over 3 years
Where you can do it
You can do this action on eligible agricultural land located below the moorland line. The table below sets out what land is eligible for SAM1.
For land above the moorland line, you can do MOR1 to complete a survey to identify, assess and record the soil, vegetation and historic and archaeological features.
Eligible land type Eligible land use code Compatible land cover Arable crops Arable land Leguminous and Arable land, including temporary Arable land nitrogen-fixing crops grassland FA01 Arable land TG01 Arable land Permanent crops – horticultural and Permanent crops Permanent crops non-horticultural Permanent grassland – improved PG01 Permanent grassland and low input
The glossary (annex C) explains what we mean by land types, land use codes and compatible land covers.
The SFI application service will automatically calculate what area may be eligible for this action in each land parcel. This is called the ‘SFI available area’. You must check this area is an eligible land type. Find out how the SFI available area is calculated in the information on land that’s eligible for the SFI actions (section 4.1.2).
You can only apply for this action on the total SFI available area in each land parcel shown in your SFI application. You cannot apply for it on part of that area. This action is static. You must do it on the same area of eligible land each year of your 3- year SFI agreement.
