NFU furious after Defra pulls SFI scheme

The National Farmers Union (NFU) has questioned Defra’s transparency and ability to keep its promises after the government department without warning closed applications to a post-Brexit financial scheme that rewards farmers for sustainable food production.

Defra announced yesterday (11 March) that it has now stopped accepting new applicants for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) because the scheme’s funding limit has been reached.

Defra said the maximum number of SFI agreements – more than 37,000 – are now either in place or in progress. It stressed that “every penny” will be paid to farmers already under the scheme, and that outstanding eligible applications that have been submitted will also be taken forward.

However, NFU President Tom Bradshaw described Defra’s decision as “another shattering blow to English farms, delivered yet again with no warning, no understanding of the industry and a complete lack of compassion or care”.

He said the NFU has expressed “major concerns for years” about whether Defra could deliver its promised package of post-Brexit, CAP-replacement payments – of which the SFI is part. Yet yesterday’s “terrible news” was delivered with no consultation, no warning and only 30 minutes before Defra briefed the press of its decision.

“There has been a total lack of the ‘partnership and co-design’ Defra loves to talk about,” Bradshaw said. “It is another example of the growing disregard for agriculture within the department.”

In its statement yesterday, Defra pitched the news as evidence that it has successfully delivered a promise to allocate its sustainable farming budget – a sentiment that has further angered farmers.

“The fact that ministers are actually trumpeting this as good news shows how desperately detached they are from the reality on the ground and how little they understand this industry,” said Bradshaw.

“When the Chancellor dramatically accelerated the end of the old schemes for all farmers, it was on the promise that they would all be able to access the new ones, which paid them for doing environmental work. But the door has now been slammed shut for thousands of farmers, creating haves and have-nots based purely on timing.”

Bradshaw continued: “The awful dilemma now faced by many farmers is whether to turn their backs on environmental work and just farm as hard as they can to survive. This is a loss to both farming and the environment and cannot be what was intended.”

Defra minister for food security and rural affairs Daniel Zeichner said yesterday there will be a ”new and improved SFI on offer”, with details to follow the government’s spending review.

He said the “new SFI” will be underpinned by the government’s ”cast iron commitment to food security, focusing on food production, creating more resilient farm businesses alongside supporting nature recovery”. 

Zeichner said the future SFI offer will cap the budget and put in place strong budgetary controls so that SFI is affordable to the public purse;  better target SFI, in a fair and orderly way, towards the priorities set out on food, farming and nature;  and, as the scheme is designed and evolving, listen to farmers feedback.  

“The improved SFI scheme will be another step in this government’s New Deal for farmers to support growth and return farm businesses to profitability,” he said. 

Westminster’s cross-party EFRA Committee nonetheless described Defra’s move to close the existing SFI as “another very regrettable decision”.

EFRA chair Alistair Carmichael MP, said: “The abrupt halting of new applications to SFI will leave many farmers with no prospect of support to replace direct payments.

“Farmers are already under immense pressure from a perfect storm of adverse conditions. For many farmers, this latest move by the government will only add to the uncertainty and insecurity of their livelihoods and threaten their financial viability.”

He added: “At a time when the Government has deeply fractured its relationship with farmers, this decision on SFI only compounds the impression that the Government either does not have a grasp of the realities that farmers face or is sanguine with the possibility of farms up and down the country going out of business, their land being sold off to other entities and British farmland being lost to farming altogether.”

Meanwhile, The Country Land and Business Association, representing 20,000+ rural businesses, called the decision Defra’s “most cruel betrayal” to date.

The association’s president, Victoria Vyvyan, said: “SFI was an ambitious, forward thinking and environmentally friendly agricultural policy seen anywhere in the world - it promised a fairer future for farmers and a greener future for the world. Labour promised to support it, but at the first available opportunity they have instead scrapped it.

“Of all the betrayals so far, this is the most cruel. It actively harms nature. It actively harms the environment. And, with war once again raging in Europe, to actively harm our food production is reckless beyond belief.”