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New information was released about the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2026 at the National Farmers Union conference this week.

It was announced that there will be two windows for applications later this year. The first will open in June 2026, for those defined as small holdings and those without existing Environmental Land Management (ELM) agreements. The second window for applications will open in September 2026, which will be open to all farmers.

Small holdings are specified as those between 3 hectares and 50 hectares. To claim, businesses must have been registered with the Rural Payments Agency on 1^st January 2026. It is anticipated that the first window will be open for around 2 months, but this could be reduced if there are a large number of applications. 

There will be 71 actions offered, most of which are similar to those in the previous SFI offer. The management actions such as CSAM1: Produce a Soil Management Plan will be removed. 

Overwinter stubble is added to the list of actions with areas capped at 25% of the farm, and reductions are expected on the payment rates for several actions. For herbal leys, this represents a reduction from £383/ha to £224/ha, with winter bird food expecting a decrease from £853/ha to £648/ha. Legume fallow will be reduced from £593/ha to £532/ha. 

There is limited detail available on the actions removed from the scheme offer, but those remaining are to focus on food production and environmental targets. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has been clear that most of the hedgerow actions are inefficient and that those will be removed too. Rotational actions will be capped at the value and area of Year 1, i.e. the area/value of the rotational action cannot increase in later years above the Year 1 figure.

Payments will be capped at £100,000 per year per farm and only one agreement can be taken by each business in 2026. Similar to the basis for Capital Grant applications last year, applications will be handled on a first come, first served basis, and the application window will close once the budget for the window is met. It is expected that the budget for each window will be released later in the year.

It was also stated that a further window for Capital Grant applications will open in July 2026 (see our article here), with a budget of £225 million.

It is likely there will be a strong uptake in these schemes and therefore, if you wish to apply, it will be important to plan early and be ready to apply when the application windows open.

Should you require any further detail about the Sustainable Farming Incentive or assistance in putting your application together, please contact our Rural team on 01234 352201.