Green farming scheme halt 'a punch in the stomach'

Jane Bassett missed out on funding from the Sustainable Farming Incentive

Farmers have called for clarity on the future of a green funding initiative after it was unexpectedly closed.

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) pays farmers to manage their land in a nature friendly way, but was suddenly shut to new applicants earlier this year.

The government said a reformed scheme will reopen "in due course" but farmers say they have been left out of pocket and unable to plan for environmental projects.

Jane Bassett, a sheep and cattle farmer from Derbyshire who had a meeting scheduled to finalise her application the day after the scheme closed, said it was "a real punch in the stomach".

"We were just stunned as an industry," she said.

SFI encourages farmers to protect soil, restore hedgerows and boost nature recovery

Ms Bassett was working on plans to plant more trees to provide shade for cows, as well as restoring dew ponds and hay meadows.

She said all the plans were now on hold.

"We felt like someone had pulled the rug from under our feet and nobody valued what we'd done in the past, what we want to do now, what we want to do in the future," she said.

Launched in 2022, the SFI formed part of the payments that replaced EU subsidies after Brexit.

It was set up to encourage farmers to prioritise sustainable farming methods over those which are more commercially lucrative.

Tenant farmer Stuart Fairfax was successful in securing funding and acquired more land as a result, with plans to use it to support a native but less profitable breed of sheep.

He agreed rent under the impression that he would be able to get more SFI funding, but was taken by surprise when the scheme closed.

Stuart Fairfax said he felt let down

"It wasn't reduced, it wasn't capped, it was just that's it, done. Nothing. So it was very very frustrating," he said.

"We took this extra bit of land on, thinking we were getting SFI on it so we could meet the rents and everything else, incurring extra costs with the agents to draw it up, and then they shut it overnight."

A spokesperson from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) said: "We are backing farmers with the largest investment in nature-friendly farming in history to grow their businesses, get more British food on our plates and help restore nature.

"This government inherited farming schemes that were untargeted and underspent, but there are now more than 39,000 multi-year agreements putting money back into farmer's pockets.

"We will set out updates on the reformed Sustainable Farming Incentive in due course."