Sustainable Farming Incentive
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what contingency plans her Department has should demand from farmers seeking to enter the Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 and those wishing to replace expiring Countryside Stewardship Mid-Tier agreements exceed the available budget.
Answered by Stephen Morgan
We have set clear budgets for SFI26 and designed the scheme to ensure fair access, manage demand and provide transparency for farmers.
The budget for new agreements this year is £240 million.
To ensure transparency, we will publish regular updates on spend.
We have also introduced measures such as an agreement cap and one agreement per farm to spread funding across as many farmers as possible.
If the SFI26 budget is fully allocated, it may be possible to apply for future SFI offers. We’ll publish more details on SFI27 in due course.
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