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Guidance: How an SFI standards agreement interacts with other funding schemes

Rural Payments Agency

March 17
16:10 2023

This information explains the interaction between land entered into a Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) standards agreement and other schemes, as well as other funding sources.

Existing schemes will continue to run alongside SFI, such as:

  • Basic Payment Scheme (BPS), until it is delinked in 2024
  • Countryside Stewardship (CS)
  • Environmental Stewardship

By the end of 2024, new schemes will also be launched, including:

  • Local Nature Recovery
  • Landscape Recovery

Including land in an SFI standards agreement and other schemes at the same time

Its possible to include the same land in an SFI standards agreement and another scheme if:

  • you and your land are eligible for each scheme
  • the activities or outcomes youre being paid for under each scheme are compatible
  • you are not being paid for a similar activity or outcome on the same area of land at the same time (known as double funding)

Basic Payment Scheme

You can include the same land parcel in a BPS application and your SFI standards agreement, as long as its eligible for each scheme.

If you apply for the Lump Sum Exit Scheme in 2022, you should not apply for an SFI standards agreement. If you decide to withdraw your Lump Sum Exit Scheme application, you can then apply for an SFI standards agreement.

Countryside Stewardship

The interaction between an SFI standards agreement and CS is different depending on whether theres a revenue option or capital items funding.

CS revenue options

If land used for a CS revenue option has an eligible land cover and is an eligible land type for the standard you choose, you can enter it into an SFI standards agreement if:

  • the CS actions, including their timing, are compatible with the actions in the standard you choose
  • you wont be paid twice for a similar activity or outcome on the same area of land at the same time (known as double funding)

If this is not the case, the ineligible CS revenue option land, including any land currently used for an ineligible rotational CS revenue option, cannot:

  • be entered into an SFI standards agreement
  • be used to complete any of the actions in the SFI standards

For example, you cannot enter:

  • an area of land used to establish a cover crop under CS into the arable and horticultural soils standard, or use it to meet the actions in that standard
  • an area of land used for a CS grass buffer strip on an improved grassland parcel into the improved grassland soils standard, or use it to meet the actions in that standard

The standard you choose affects which CS revenue options are compatible and do not lead to double funding.

CS revenue options and the moorland standard

Land used for all CS revenue options can be entered into the introductory level of the moorland standard, if it has an eligible land cover and is an eligible land type.

This is because the introductory level of the moorland standard does not involve physical land management actions, so there is no incompatibility or double funding.

CS revenue options and the soils standards

You can enter land used for certain CS revenue options into the introductory and intermediate levels in the arable and horticultural soils standard or the improved grassland soils standard in 2022.

These eligible CS revenue options are set out in tables 1 and 2.

Table 1. Eligible CS revenue options for the arable and horticultural soils standard

CS revenue option
ED1: Educational access
BE3: Management of hedgerows
SP10: Administration of group managed agreements supplement
AB5: Nesting plots for lapwing
AB11: Cultivated areas for arable plants
AB14: Harvested low input cereal
AB12: Supplementary winter feeding for farmland birds
SP9: Threatened species supplement
OP3: Supplementary feeding for farmland birds
OT3: Organic land management rotational land
OT4: Organic land management horticulture
OR3: Organic conversion - rotational land
OR4: Organic conversion horticulture
HS3: Reduced-depth, non-inversion cultivation on historic and archaeological features
HS9: Restricted depth crop establishment to protect archaeology under an arable rotation

Table 2. Eligible CS revenue options for the improved grassland soils standard

CS revenue option
SW10: Seasonal livestock removal on intensive grassland in SDAs next to streams, rivers and lakes
BE3: Management of hedgerows
BE6: Veteran tree surgery
BE7: Supplement for restorative pruning of fruit trees
ED1: Educational access
OT1: Organic land management - improved permanent grassland
OT3: Organic land management - rotational land
SP10: Administration of group managed agreements supplement
OR1: Organic conversion - improved permanent grassland
SW9: Seasonal livestock removal on intensive grassland
SP7: Introduction of cattle grazing on Isles of Scilly

If you use an area of a land parcel for a CS revenue option not listed in tables 1 and 2 above, that area cannot be entered into the soils standards.

However, you can enter the rest of the land parcel not covered by an ineligible CS revenue option into either of the soils standards (if its eligible land for the chosen standard).

For example, if part of a land parcel is used for a CS grass buffer strip, you can enter the rest of the area into either of the soils standards.

Rotational CS revenue options

A rotational CS revenue option is a multi-annual land management option that can be moved around identified land parcels in your CS agreement.

Each year of your CS agreement, you declare the area currently used for a rotational CS option. You do this either:

  • on the CS annual revenue claim, usually submitted by 15 May each year
  • by 1 September in the relevant year if you cannot declare its location on the CS annual revenue claim

Any area within a land parcel thats currently used for an ineligible rotational CS revenue option cannot be entered into the soils standards.

You can enter the rest of the land parcel not covered by an ineligible rotational CS revenue option into either of the soils standards (if its eligible land for the chosen standard).

The area currently used for an ineligible rotational CS revenue option will be automatically removed from the available area in your SFI application. This means the total area entered into your SFI standards agreement does not include the area currently used for an ineligible rotational CS revenue option.

Once your SFI standards agreement has started, the ineligible rotational CS revenue option area can be moved around the land parcels in your agreement. This is because weve already removed that area from your SFI application. However, this is only possible if the area of the ineligible rotational CS revenue option does not exceed the area automatically removed from the available area in your SFI application.

For example, a land parcel currently includes 2 hectares (ha) of SW6. That area is automatically removed from that land parcel in your SFI application. Once your SFI standards agreement has started, you can move that 2ha of SW6 around the land parcels in your agreement. However, if the area of SW6 increases to 2.5ha in either the second or third year of your SFI standards agreement, youll need to add land to your SFI standards agreement at the annual upgrade point to accommodate the additional 0.5ha.

Applying for an SFI standards agreement if you have an existing CS agreement

If you have an e

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