Farm Grants & Subsidies Guide

The Sustainable Farming Incentive is Defra's flagship environmental land management scheme and the main successor to the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) in England. It pays farmers to carry out environmentally beneficial actions on their land alongside food production.

Unlike BPS, which paid per hectare regardless of what you did, SFI pays you to take specific actions. You choose which actions suit your farm, agree to do them for three years, and receive an annual payment per hectare or per unit of activity.

Key actions available

• Soil health: Assess soil condition, produce a soil management plan, add organic matter, and establish green cover over winter. Payments vary by ambition level.
• Hedgerow management: Maintain, rejuvenate, or plant hedgerows on a rotational cutting cycle. One of the simpler actions to get started with.
• Integrated Pest Management (IPM): Produce a whole-farm IPM plan, use companion cropping, establish flower-rich margins, and reduce reliance on synthetic inputs.
• Nutrient management: Develop and follow a nutrient management plan, use legumes in rotations, optimise fertiliser application, and establish cover crops.
• Moorland and rough grazing: Manage moorland, scrub, and rough grazing for biodiversity and carbon storage.
• Low-input grassland: Manage grassland with reduced inputs to benefit wildlife, pollinators, and soil biology.

Payment rates

Payment rates differ by action and ambition level. As a rough guide, soil health actions pay between £5.80 and £40+ per hectare depending on the level, while hedgerow management can pay around £13 per 100 metres. Rates are published annually by the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) and can be stacked where multiple actions apply to the same land.

You can apply for SFI at any point during the year through the Rural Payments service. There is no competitive element: if you meet the eligibility criteria and commit to the actions, you will receive the payment.

Countryside Stewardship (CS) has been running alongside BPS for several years and remains open for applications. It offers payments for environmental management that go further than SFI, typically requiring more specific habitat work or targeting particular environmental outcomes.

Higher Tier

Higher Tier agreements are for the most environmentally significant sites, including SSSIs, priority habitats, and commons. They are tailored agreements developed with a Natural England adviser. Applications are competitive, and agreements typically run for five or ten years.

Mid Tier

Mid Tier is more broadly accessible and covers a wide range of options including buffer strips, winter bird food plots, pollen and nectar mixes, water quality improvements, and traditional orchard management. Applications are scored, with priority given to farms in target areas.

Wildlife offers

Defra has introduced simplified "wildlife offers" within Countryside Stewardship, which bundle together a set of options aimed at specific outcomes (for example, farmland bird recovery or pollinator support). These are designed to be easier to apply for than a full Mid Tier agreement.

Application process

CS applications typically open in the spring and close in the summer for agreements starting the following January. You apply online through the Rural Payments service. It is worth speaking to a land agent or Natural England adviser before applying, particularly for Higher Tier.

In addition to annual revenue payments through SFI and Countryside Stewardship, Defra offers a number of capital grant schemes to help fund one-off investments. These are typically competitive and open in funding rounds, so timing matters.

Agricultural policy is devolved, so farmers in Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland operate under different schemes to those in England. Below is a brief overview of the main programmes in each nation.

Wales: Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS)

The Welsh Government's Sustainable Farming Scheme is the planned replacement for BPS in Wales. It is built around a "universal layer" of baseline actions that all farmers must meet (including soil testing, woodland cover targets, and habitat management), with optional higher tiers for more ambitious environmental work. The scheme has been through several consultation phases, and transitional support payments continue in the interim.

Scotland: Agriculture Reform

Scotland is reforming its agricultural support through a tiered approach. Direct payments continue under a reformed Basic Payment Scheme, with additional funding available through enhanced conditionality and voluntary measures. The Less Favoured Areas Support Scheme (LFASS) has been replaced by the Areas of Natural Constraint scheme, which provides additional payments to farms in challenging locations such as the Highlands, islands, and uplands. Agri-environment climate scheme (AECS) agreements support biodiversity and climate outcomes.

Northern Ireland: DAERA schemes

The Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA) administers farm support in Northern Ireland. The Basic Payment Scheme continues, supplemented by agri-environment programmes including the Environmental Farming Scheme (EFS) and the Farm Sustainability Payment. DAERA also offers capital grant programmes for specific investments in on-farm infrastructure, renewable energy, and business development.