SFI24 – ELIGIBLE FARMERS INVITED TO APPLY

On Monday, the RPA invited eligible farmers to apply for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI24) following its sudden closure on 11^th March.  Eligible farmers include those who started an SFI application after 11^th January but who had not submitted it by 11^th March and farmers whose SFI pilot agreements have finished.  Those who had draft SFI applications in the system will be limited to a maximum of £9,300 per year of the agreement (excluding the management payment) and only one application can be submitted per business.  It appears that those who have been in the SFI Pilot will only be able to apply on the land that was in the pilot regardless of whether they have other land they wanted to include in their application. We are taking up this issue with the RPA as many farmers in the pilot only put a small area into the agreement.  The deadline to submit these SFI applications is 18^th August.  We are expecting more details of the revised SFI scheme to be announced later in the Summer but the new scheme is unlikely to reopen until 2026.