NSA calls for urgent overhaul of SFI26 funding and delivery after same-day closure

National Sheep Association (NSA) is frustrated and seriously concerned that the second application window for Defra's flagship Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 (SFI26) closed at 3.48pm on Tuesday 22nd September, less than seven hours after it opened.

The £233m window was open to all eligible farmers and land managers in England. For many businesses seeking to enter or renew existing agreements ending this autumn and winter, it was the first opportunity to secure continuity through the new apply early route. NSA had urged sheep farmers to apply promptly. Few could have expected the entire budget to go within a working day.

Phil Stocker, NSA Chief Executive, says: "I am highly concerned by this situation. It may well be dressed up as a sign of the success of and demand for SFI, but it is yet another smash and grab raid which will exclude many farmers and deny them the continuity their businesses need. We simply cannot expect farmers to live with this level of uncertainty when they are running businesses built on long-term decisions.

"We have no idea yet how many applications will be accepted, or how many farmers will be left out. Those left out will have no opportunity to carry on with much of the environmental work already in place on their farms, and they will be left with a huge gap in their budgets which will be nigh on impossible to fill.

"NSA put a significant amount of effort into supporting Defra with scheme design, and I am devastated by the mess England now finds itself in through inadequate funding and poor budgetary control. To have the nation's foundation farming and environmental scheme operate in this way is unacceptable."

Mr Stocker adds: "SFI may be focused on buying environmental goods, but farms work within long-term planning structures. They cannot carry this level of uncertainty over whether they will be rewarded for public goods or not. A scheme of this kind should not be competitive. There is a complete mismatch between Defra holding a fixed budget, which is gone once it is spent, and English farmers needing a base income foundation which allows sustainable farming to be delivered viably.

"There is still a way for government to rescue this situation, but it needs an urgent injection of additional funds, not another attempt to find money by moving existing budgets around. Robbing Peter to pay Paul will not do. Government must wake up to the importance of farming and food production, and to the fact it needs support. Full viability cannot be achieved without restructuring the way money flows through supply chains, or without serious additional food inflation.

"England was said to be pioneering a world-leading new approach to agricultural support. It has become a laughingstock; at the very moment we are waking up to the fragility and importance of food security."

NSA will continue to work with Defra and the Rural Payments Agency to establish how many sheep farming businesses have been left without an agreement, and what provision will be made for them ahead of the SFI offer planned for 2027.