Chris Gomersall/2020VISION
Sustainable Farming Incentive
The Sustainable Farming Incentive will act as a stepping stone towards the national rollout of the Environment Land Management (ELM) scheme in 2024.
Farms and landowners will be able to claim this alongside other stewardship agreements and will be paid for producing a range of public goods which help to improve biodiversity, tackle climate change and lead to cleaner water and air.
It is planned to open in 2022 with a limited number of standards aimed at improving soil health; these will be added to over time to cover a wide range of public goods.Â
Who can apply for SFI standards?
Farmers will be eligible if they:
- Are a recipient of the Basic Payments Scheme, registered on the Rural Payments Agency system 
- Have management control of the land for the duration of the pilot
- Enter land parcels that are in England only and are not common land.
What are the SFI standards?
When the standards are released in full there will be three levels for participants to choose from – introductory, intermediate and advanced with each level more challenging and more rewarding than the previous level.
SFI will be available to farmers in existing stewardship schemes but only if the options do not replicate the same outcomes.