UK government to reopen Sustainable Farming Incentive with renewed focus on smaller farms
News
The government has announced plans to reopen the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)* in June 2026, alongside a package of measures that it says will support farm profitability and strengthen partnerships with farmers.
The announcement was made at the Oxford Farming Conference on 8 January, where the Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds set out what is described as a new era of partnership with farmers. The plans include reforms to simplify the SFI, provide greater certainty for farmers who apply and prioritise support for smaller farms as well as those not currently part of any agreement.
Under the proposals, there will be two SFI application windows in 2026. The first, which will open in June, will prioritise smaller farms and those without an existing SFI agreement. A second round will follow in September and will be open to wider applications. The government has said it will continue to work with the farming sector to refine the scheme.
Next to the SFI plans, the government also announced a new £30 million Farmer Collaboration Fund to support farmer groups to grow their businesses, share best practice, build partnerships and develop new opportunities.
Plans to explore a transformation of England’s uplands, recognising the pressures facing rural communities in these areas, were also outlined by the Environment Secretary at the conference. Building on research carried out in six upland regions over the past year, the government will work over the next two years in Dartmoor and Cumbria to develop farming clusters, explore new funding models and lay the foundations for new income streams. These could include nature-based enterprises, regenerative tourism and circular economy initiatives.
In addition, the government confirmed it will extend the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme for a further three years. This includes £30 million in funding next year.
Following the abrupt closure of the SFI scheme in 2025, news of its reopening will come as a relief to many farmers who were left in limbo. The focus on smaller farms is an important first step but future government backing must help drive a real shift away from factory farming towards higher-welfare, nature-friendly systems that work for animals, farmers and the environment.
We welcome the announcement of the SFI reopening and prioritising smaller farmers, who are too often overlooked. Industrial animal production is one of the biggest food system drivers of animal cruelty, greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss and antimicrobial resistance. The SFI should be supporting innovative farmers to take animals out of factories and rear them in the land where they can thrive. Nature-friendly farming practices like agroforestry offer solutions to destructive industrial production. Farmers want to move to more sustainable practices. Defra must work closely with regenerative farmers on subsidy design to deliver radical reform.
With increasing pressure around climate change, biodiversity loss and rising costs, many farmers are already looking for ways to farm differently. Supporting a just transition in UK farming means ensuring that public funding helps farmers move away from factory farming and towards approaches that improve animal welfare, protect nature and provide long-term resilience for rural communities.
The reopening of the SFI presents an opportunity to do just that. The challenge now is whether the scheme’s final design will deliver the clarity, ambition and support needed to help farmers lead the transition to a fairer, more humane and sustainable food system.
* The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is a government scheme that supports farmers to farm more sustainably.
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