SFI is the first of three new environmental land management schemes being introduced under the government’s Agricultural Transition Plan. The other two schemes are Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.
Image: man standing in river with colleagues looking at him.
SFI helps farmers manage land in a way that boosts food production and is more environmentally sustainable. The payments to farmers will deliver public goods. Those goods will include improved water quality, greater biodiversity, better mitigation of climate change, and healthier animals—improvements that will benefit us all.
It is important to note, as was announced in June 2024, that farms have the opportunity to enter the same area of land into both an SFI standards agreement and a private sector scheme, such as Habitat Banking. Therefore, landowners can make the most of SFI funding in conjunction with other schemes focused on nature, such as Habitat Banking (incl. under the Improved Grassland & Moorland option).
SFI is a scheme that is intended to ensure food security and, in the long term, to enable the kind of food production that is needed to generate enough food for everyone to eat. To achieve this goal, the scheme invests in the very foundations of food production, which in our part of the world means healthy soil, water, and biodiverse ecosystems. It is investing where the returns are not only vital but guaranteed and the risk minuscule.
SFI Payments:
| Standard | Level | Payment |
| Arable and horticultural soils | Introductory | £22 per hectare |
| Intermediate | £40 per hectare | |
| Improved grassland soils | Introductory | £28 per hectare |
| Intermediate | £58 per hectare | |
| Moorland | Introductory | £10.30 per hectare |
| Additional payment | £265 per agreement |
Please reach out to our team for additional details regarding the integration of SFI, as well as other schemes, with Habitat Banking and biodiversity initiatives.
