What is the Sustainable Farming Incentive?

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is a government scheme that pays English farmers annually for actions that support sustainable food production and improve the environment — things like managing hedgerows, maintaining herbal leys, or reducing pesticide use. The current version is SFI26, with 71 available actions.

You choose which actions suit your farm, apply through the Rural Payments service on GOV.UK, and receive an annual payment for each action for as long as your agreement runs (most actions run for 3 years).

SFI replaced the old EU-era Basic Payment Scheme as part of England’s post-Brexit agricultural policy, moving from paying for land ownership to paying for specific environmental and sustainable-farming actions.