“Disastrous”, “devastating”, “shattering”, “terrible” and “cruel” were just some of the more polite descriptions by farm industry leaders of the shock decision by DEFRA to close applications to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) without warning.

The announcement, portrayed as good news by DEFRA, coincided with the release of the NFU’s annual farmer confidence survey which showed farm business confidence had already reached historically low levels, surpassing the record lows set last year.

Even the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee (EFRA), a House of Commons select committee not given to outspoken rhetoric, was quick to condemn the warning-free closure of a scheme designed to give farmers a ‘soft landing’ as Basic Payments came to an end.

Chair Alistair Carmichael MP commented: “The sudden announcement yesterday that the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) would cease to take new applications to the scheme, with immediate effect and with no prior warning having been given, is another very regrettable decision by DEFRA. The abrupt halting of new applications to SFI will leave many farmers with no prospect of support to replace direct payments.

“Farmers are already under immense pressure from a perfect storm of adverse conditions. For many farmers, this latest move by the Government will only add to the uncertainty and insecurity of their livelihoods and threaten their financial viability. 

“At a time when the Government has deeply fractured its relationship with farmers, this decision on SFI only compounds the impression that the Government either does not have a grasp of the realities that farmers face or is sanguine with the possibility of farms up and down the country going out of business, their land being sold off to other entities and British farmland being lost to farming altogether.”

With other industry bodies pulling no punches in attacking what Country Land and Business Association (CLA) president Victoria Vyvyan described as “reckless beyond belief”, the NFU has since organised a farming roundtable with food security and rural affairs minister Daniel Zeichner to explain what it called “the crushing impact of DEFRA’s decision” and raise the urgent need for transparency from Defra. Farming representatives called on the minister to:

  • Unlock the SFI scheme for the thousands of farmers who have begun agreements but are now unable to be paid for the work they have completed
  • Provide more information about the future of the SFI scheme
  • Build trust in the farming industry by being transparent about the agriculture budget and its allocations
  • Undertake impact assessments, looking at what the decision means for the agricultural transition.

NFU President Tom Bradshaw said: “The closure of SFI is a devastating shock for farmers and leaves businesses on a knife edge when they were already struggling with the impact of the changes to inheritance tax.

“We made it clear to the Minister that this decision not only threatens the livelihoods of numerous farmers, especially upland farmers, commoners and tenants, but also undermines the ability of farm businesses to deliver environmental work. We also explained how it has crushed all trust in DEFRA.

“Our recent farm business confidence survey results show that farmer confidence has reached an all-time low. The uncertainty caused by this abrupt policy change will erode any confidence that was left in the farming community.

“For the sake of our domestic food producing businesses, it is vital DEFRA provides urgent clarity on the future of SFI and starts being transparent about its budget, something we’ve been asking for years.”

Earlier, Tom had described the announcement as “another shattering blow to UK farms, delivered yet again with no warning, no understanding of the industry and a complete lack of compassion or care”.

He said the NFU had had “major concerns for years” over DEFRA’s capability to deliver agricultural transition and had “warned time and time again that large parts of the SFI were poorly designed and that the department was consistently failing to deliver it”.

NFU regional board chair for the East of England Alan Clifton-Holt, who farms near Romney Marsh in Kent, said: “This is terrible news for thousands of farmers and growers across the South East who were planning to be a part of this year’s SFI scheme.

“Farmers were given no warning whatsoever that applications are closing and the NFU was only informed 30 minutes before Defra announced the news to the media. This is a huge kick in the teeth to our hard-working farmers and growers.

“This is also very bad news for the environment, as much of the planned positive environmental work to boost biodiversity and enhance the countryside may now not go ahead.  Without that financial incentive, many farmers and growers who are already facing huge financial pressures – greatly enhanced by the government’s devastating autumn budget – will now need to focus purely on doing what they need to do to ensure their businesses can survive.”

Tom added: “The fact that ministers are actually trumpeting this as good news shows how desperately detached they are from the reality on the ground and how little they understand this industry.” He criticised “bad decisions, misdirection, promises broken, no transparency and yet more financial disaster for farming”.

DEFRA said the Government had committed £5 billion over two years to sustainable farming and nature recovery and had “worked hard to get as many farmers into environmental land management schemes as possible”, adding that the SFI now had “more than 37,000 multi-year live agreements”.

It went on: “With record numbers of farm businesses in farming schemes and the sustainable farming budget successfully allocated, we will stop accepting new applications for SFI from today.

An unimpressed Tom Bradshaw pointed out: “They say the money is spent, but because DEFRA refuses to be transparent we don’t know where it’s been spent, or whether it’s all been spent within this year.”

Other comments

Martin Lines, CEO of the Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN): “While it is good news that so many farmers have been getting into agri-environment schemes, many more have been prevented from accessing SFI due to overly complicated schemes that cannot be stacked together and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) being slow to process applications and queries.

“With so much focus on SFI to deliver public goods compared to other parts of the Environment Land Management scheme, it has become increasingly difficult for farmers to understand what they should do and where they fit in. Many farmers have been waiting months for the RPA to update applications and enable the annual declaration so that a new application can be stacked on top.”

Country Land and Business Association (CLA) President Victoria Vyvyan: “SFI was the most ambitious, forward thinking and environmentally friendly agricultural policy seen anywhere in the world – it promised a fairer future for farmers and a greener future for the world.

“Labour promised to support it, but at the first available opportunity they have instead scrapped it. Of all the betrayals so far, this is the most cruel. It actively harms nature.  It actively harms the environment. And, with war once again raging in Europe, to actively harm our food production is reckless beyond belief.”

Kerriann McLackland, head of estates at The Countryside Regeneration Trust : “This shock announcement is a devastating blow to farmers and land managers everywhere. Those farmers working tirelessly to produce food alongside being custodians and restorers of our countryside have been treated with contempt.

“Sadly, for some, I fear that this may be the final straw that sends some producers to the wall, especially those producing fabulous local food on a relatively small scale.  The Government has said it wants to drive growth – no business can grow and thrive when the framework in which they are operating is smashed to pieces with no notice.

“This announcement has further destroyed the trust between farmers and DEFRA.”

Soil Association chief executive Helen Browning: “This damaging move by government seriously risks the viability of the organic sector and threatens the supply of sustainable British food. It has frozen farmers out of the opportunity to meet the rising demand for organic food, which will instead continue to be met by imports.

“The Government is disregarding what shoppers and farmers want, alongside the need to protect nature. This is a new low for sustainable food production in England, which will fall even further behind Scotland and other countries where there are targets to increase organic production.

“We are also very worried that smaller producers and family farms, particularly fruit and veg growers, have not had enough opportunity to access the scheme and that they will be most impacted by this sudden change.”

National Sheep Association chief executive Phil Stocker: “This latest DEFRA announcement feels disastrous – a word I don’t use lightly.  I’m seriously concerned many farms will now face 2025 with an accelerated decline of BPS income – and no access to SFI which for most farmers will be the main plank to replace that money.

“NSA considers the shock move indicates poor scheme design and management and is in disbelief how DEFRA has arrived at this position and not stepped in to manage it earlier.

“For all the co-design and warm words that DEFRA want a different relationship with industry, this will just about destroy all that has been built over the past five years. Coming back from this will be hard.”

Simon Britton, head of agri-consultancy at Knight Frank: “A scheme intended to provide stability during the transition has instead created further uncertainty, raising serious concerns about the government’s approach to agricultural policy.”

DEFRA, which suggested “now is the right time for a reset”, said “a reformed SFI scheme, with a budget to be confirmed in the spending review this summer, will direct funding where there is greatest potential to do more on nature and where there is the least ability to access decent returns from agricultural markets, or other sources of investment, as set out in the land use framework.”

It said details of the revised scheme would be announced this summer, although it is unclear when it will be launched.

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