The RPA announced the disappointing news Tuesday 11th March that they are no longer accepting Sustainable Farming Incentive applications.  This has come as a surprise to us all, with no heads up provided by DEFRA or the RPA.

It feels that the rug is being pulled out of encouraging sustainable and environmental farming. This combined with the planning and infrastructure bill designed to facilitate compulsory land purchase at agricultural values does make you question the level of support the government are willing to offer the industry.

On an update call today (Wednesday 12th March), the RPA explained that the SFI scheme was closed due to the targets the RPA set for the scheme have been met and the funding allocated. They did not want to give notice as that would cause an increase in applications as the funding has been spent.

One thing they did make clear was that it was only the Sustainable Farming Incentive that is being affected, Higher-Tier opening in the summer and Farming in protected Landscapes fund are still open .

At the moment the advice from the RPA is that they will publish a SFI update in the summer with new applications looking to open again in 2026 with a new revised offer. This revised offer will incorporate the 14 endorsed actions that were due to come out this summer, meaning a further delay for those waiting for more specific habitat actions.

To summarise what this means for those with existing, applied for and in draft applications :

**Current SFI Agreements**: Agreements are guaranteed until the original end date and payments continue as per the agreement
**Submitted Applications**: Eligible submissions will be processed and agreements offered
**Drafted Applications**: If the application had not been submitted by the 11^th of March then you are unable to apply for a SFI EO.  Some drafted applications with system faults or requiring “assisted digital” support may still be processed.

For assistance and an outline of what grants are available get in touch with the team