The Countryside Alliance has warned that the government must urgently rethink its approach to supporting farmers after the latest Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) application window closed in less than six hours.
The SFI scheme provides farmers with government funding for sustainable land management practices such as maintaining hedgerows and no-till farming.
The £233 million fund opened to farmers yesterday but was fully allocated by 3.48pm, with the government confirming that strong demand had exhausted the available budget.
Tim Bonner, Chief Executive of the Countryside Alliance, said:
“Farmers should not have to race against the clock to secure the support they need to run their businesses and deliver the environmental outcomes the government is asking of them.
“The fact that a £233 million scheme was fully allocated within six hours tells us two things: there is a huge appetite among farmers to participate in these schemes, but the funding and system are simply not keeping pace with demand.
“Farmers need certainty, not a scramble for funding. They need to know that if they are being asked to change the way they manage their land, there will be a fair and reliable system to support them.
“This is exactly why the Countryside Alliance launched the Campaign for the Countryside last week. We are calling for a rural reset in the relationship between government and the countryside.
“The countryside is ready to work with government to deliver for food, farming, nature and the wider economy. But that requires government to work with the countryside too.
“The message from yesterday’s SFI window could hardly be clearer: the demand is there. Now government needs to match it with the funding, certainty and long-term thinking that farmers need.”
The government has said it intends to offer an SFI scheme in 2027 and will work with farming representative organisations and the wider sector to consider how the scheme should be refined.
This latest episode follows the Countryside Alliance's launch of its Campaign for the Countryside, which identified 27 government policies affecting rural communities and called for a reset in the relationship between government and rural Britain.
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