Comprehensive new SFI scheme a big step forward – the GWCT response

The latest changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, launched at the Oxford Farming Conference, are a huge step in the right direction. For many years, the Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust has argued for those farmers with good existing habitat to be rewarded for their work. Finally, we have this at a fair rate within government policy. Including an option for maintaining species-rich grassland and raising the funding from £180/ha to £646/ha is rewarding those who have looked after the countryside at their own expense. By stacking these payments, farmers have the opportunity to make positive conservation measures pay.

The comprehensive range of options provides the widest menu available to farmers, rewarding everything from payment for technological investments such as robotic weeding to managing ponds or implementing multi-season cover crops.

“It is clear that Defra has taken a thorough look at how to support our farmers,” says Dr Alastair Leake, Director of Policy & Allerton Project at the GWCT. “Whether you’re a livestock farmer in the uplands or growing the nation’s vegetables on grade one silt, there’s something for you. With a lot of imagination and time to plan, those who are farming well can get the money that they lost from BPS and, importantly, show that they deserve it.”

The inclusion of payment for predation management is welcome, with funding for controlling grey squirrels, mink, deer and edible dormouse all positive for conservation. It could go further, however. Applicants can be rewarded for managing grassland for waders, but this comes without the condition that they undertake the predation management that stops these becoming possible population sinks, nor will land managers be paid for it.

Despite this minor grumble, today is an encouraging day for the future of Britain’s farmland, just when it needs it most.