The farming industry has issued a furious response to the shock news that Defra has closed Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) applications with zero notice given to the industry.
NFU president Tom Bradshaw described it as ‘another shattering blow to English farms’ and condemned the lack of understanding or compassion shown towards the industry, while Country Land and Business Association president Victoria Vyvyan said it was the government’s ‘cruellest betrayal to date’, and that it harms both farmers and nature.
To make matters worse, Defra has described its decision as a ‘success’. Explaining the decision, it said, ‘with record numbers of farm businesses in farming schemes and the sustainable farming budget successfully allocated, the Government has today stopped accepting new applications for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI24)’.
It added that every penny in all existing SFI agreements will be paid to farmers, and outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will also be taken forward.
But it said it inherited farming schemes which were underspent, meaning millions of pounds were not going to farming businesses.
As a result of the Government’s determination to get more farmers to participate, there is now a record 50,000 farm businesses and more than half of all farmed land is now managed under its schemes, including more than 37,000 multi-year live agreements in SFI24, Defra said.
“However, this Government inherited an uncapped scheme, despite a finite farming budget. The highest ever level of participation in SFI means the maximum limit has now been reached. Therefore, as SFI has reached its completion the Government is stopping accepting new SFI applications today,” it added.
“Now is the right time for a reset: supporting farmers, delivering for nature and targeting public funds fairly and effectively towards our priorities for food, farming and nature. ”
Food Security minister Daniel Zeichner said: ”More farmers are now in schemes and more money is being spent through them than ever before. That is true today and will remain true tomorrow. We have now successfully allocated the SFI24 budget as promised.”
Shattering blow
As well as expressing anger at the decision, NFU president Tom Bradshaw highligted the way the announcement was delivered. “This is another shattering blow to English farms, delivered yet again with no warning, no understanding of the industry and a complete lack of compassion or care,” he said.
“We have had major concerns for years about whether there was the capability within Defra to deliver the agricultural transition post-Brexit. We have warned time and time again that large parts of the SFI were poorly designed and that the department was consistently failing to deliver it.
“Today’s terrible news was delivered with only 30 minutes warning to us before ministers briefed the press, leaving us unable to inform our members. There has been no consultation, no communication; there has been a total lack of the ‘partnership and co-design’ Defra loves to talk about. It is another example of the growing disregard for agriculture within the department.
“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 described Defra as a ‘failing department’. “The chaos has got worse and worse and farmers are paying the price. Bad decisions, misdirection, promises broken, no transparency and yet more financial disaster for farming,” he said.
He pointed out that when Chancellor Rachel Reeves dramatically accelerated the end of the old schemes, including the Basic Payment Scheme, for all farmers, it was on the promise that they would all be able to access the new ones, such as SFI.
“But the door has now been slammed shut for thousands of farmers, creating haves and have nots based purely on timing,” he added. “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.
“The awful dilemma now faced by many farmers is whether to turn their backs on environmental work and just farm as hard as they can to survive. This is a loss to both farming and the environment and cannot be what was intended.”
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.”
No prospect of support
Alistair Carmichael, chair of the EFRA Committee, said the sudden announcement, with immediate effect and with no prior warning having been given, was ‘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,” he said.
“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.”