SFI 2026 – welcome announcement

At the Oxford Farming conference today, Emma Reynolds, Environment Secretary, has made a welcome announcement with regard to the future of SFI.

She has confirmed that DEFRA will open 2 application windows for SFI in 2026 – with the first window opening in June for farmers with small farms and farmers without existing environmental land management agreements and then a second window in September for all farmers.

She has set out that DEFRA will publish clear definitions of each of the groups prior to the first application window opening and in addition clear budgets will be set for each window and DEFRA will provide regular updates so that applicants can see when a window is close to being fully subscribed. She has also confirmed that application windows will not close without warning.

Currently DEFRA are reviewing SFI and the aim is to make SFI simpler and more focused by reducing the number of actions. They have confirmed that there will still be a large offering of actions which will suit different farm types, and there will be greater emphasis on actions which support sustainable food production, which will include limiting the area of land which can be put in to actions which take land out of production and also reviewing the payment rates for actions which take land out of production.

This announcement today is very welcome as it now gives the industry a timescale for when they can expect the scheme to be open for applications, and we will await the detail with interest. If you are wishing to enter your farm into SFI and would like some help with the application then please get in touch to register your interest for SFI 2026.