England’s SFI funding window closes in under six hours, leaving farmers uncertain

England’s Sustainable Farming Incentive closed its second 2026 application window at 3:48pm on 22 September, less than six hours after it opened. The available funding had been allocated, according to the Guardian, leaving farmers who failed to secure an application facing uncertainty over payments for environmental work. The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs confirms that the window is closed.

The window was open to all eligible farmers and land managers. For some, the speed of its closure mattered as much as the amount available: applicants had to be ready to use the online service on the day it opened, while farm work and reported technical problems complicated attempts to submit applications.

Farmers describe missed applications

Peter Hatley, who runs a 240-hectare family farm in Cambridgeshire, told the Guardian he encountered repeated error messages when he tried to apply at 10am. He said he called the government helpline and was told there were problems with the scheme. By the time the issue was fixed, he said, the funding had gone. His account describes his experience; the number of applicants affected by similar errors has not been established.

Hatley said his farm had suffered three bad harvests and that SFI money would have been a lifeline. He has spent years diversifying the farm and making space for nature, but told the Guardian that without the funding he would move to a single maize crop. That is a stated plan, rather than a change already documented on the farm. He said the prospect would undo years of work and affect wildlife habitat.

The Guardian reported that up to 10,000 farmers with agreements due to expire in March 2027 either chose not to apply or could not apply. That figure does not identify how many attempted to apply and encountered a technical fault. It also does not establish how many of those farmers would otherwise have obtained new agreements.

How the scheme works

SFI is part of England’s system of farm payments introduced after the UK left the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy. It pays farmers and land managers for specified activities intended to benefit the environment while supporting food production and productivity. Defra’s scheme rules say an SFI26 agreement usually lasts three years, with payments made in quarterly instalments.

The 2026 scheme offered 71 actions, compared with 102 under SFI24. Defra set an annual agreement value limit of £100,000 per farm business and allowed each business one SFI26 agreement. Its first application window, reserved for small farms and farms without an existing environmental land management revenue agreement, closed on 28 August. The second window opened eligibility to all farmers and land managers meeting the scheme’s rules.

Those rules also allowed certain farmers with environmental agreements nearing expiry to start an SFI26 application before their existing agreement ended, avoiding a gap in the application process. A new agreement for those applicants would normally begin after the expiring one. Defra says SFI26 agreements must start by 1 April 2027 to use the budget available for the current financial year.

Pressure for a 2027 plan

Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, told the Guardian that the rapid exhaustion of funding showed how urgently farmers needed support. The National Farmers’ Union called on the government to commit to the 2027 scheme, saying clarity mattered for food-producing businesses already questioning whether they could survive the year ahead. These are assessments from farming groups, not a measure of how many businesses will close.

Farming minister Stephen Morgan said farmers would receive almost a third of a billion pounds a year for three years under new SFI26 agreements. He said the government had capped applications at £100,000 and prioritised small farms and those new to environmental land management schemes. Morgan acknowledged that farmers unable to secure an agreement in the second window would be disappointed.

Morgan said he would work with farmers on lessons for SFI27, including looking at alternatives to allocating places on a first-come, first-served basis. He gave no detailed replacement process in the statement quoted by the Guardian. For farmers who missed the September window, the immediate question is whether future arrangements will offer another opportunity to fund the work they had planned.