Tens of thousands of English farmers could miss out when the second application window of the Sustainable Farming Incentive opens on Tuesday 22 September. The £230 million pot — including an extra £50 million of drought support and any money left from Window 1 — may fund only about 15,000 agreements, according to the farm software platform Soil Benchmark, against as many as 40,000 farm businesses that could apply.

Unlike the first window, which was reserved for small farms and those without an existing agreement, Window 2 is open to all eligible farmers and land managers, and Defra has confirmed it will close once the budget is exhausted.

To stretch the money Defra has removed the management payment, scrapped planning actions and cut rates for popular options such as herbal leys, winter bird food and legume fallow. Soil Benchmark co-founder Tom Scrope estimates that average agreements will fall from about £21,000 under SFI23 and SFI24 to roughly £15,000 — and that even after excluding the 6,900 Window 1 applicants and the 25,000 farmers whose earlier agreements run beyond February 2027, more than 40,000 businesses could still be seeking funding.

Richard King, head of business research at consultants Andersons, expects a rush on opening day and urged farmers to have their land registered correctly with the Rural Payments Agency and their applications ready to submit. The NFU said that with many farms in a cashflow crisis, every eligible business must be able to reach SFI26 funding this autumn, and asked Defra for detail on SFI27 and on access to Countryside Stewardship Higher Tier.

Shadow Defra secretary Victoria Atkins said Window 1's popularity showed how badly farmers needed the scheme and questioned the £100,000 cap per farm business. Defra said strong demand in the first window demonstrated farmers' appetite for a scheme that supports food production and sustainable land management.

Source: Farmers Weekly