The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has thanked DEFRA Secretary of State, Rt Hon Emma Reynolds MP and her officials for the constructive engagement focused on the reopening of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) in advance of her speech to the NFU conference tomorrow.

TFA Chief Executive, George Dunn said “There’s been much speculation and rumour around the discussions which we, and others, have been holding with DEFRA. Many were fearing an extremely stripped back offering with much lower payment rates and reduced flexibility. With what the Secretary of State will announce, those fears and concerns should, in large part, be addressed. Whilst there will be fewer options than SFI 2024, the remaining 71 options in this year’s scheme should provide a broad scope of opportunity for individuals to participate.”

A significant concern of the TFA has been the extent to which large landowners have been able to game the SFI system by removing land from active farmers to take advantage of a seemingly open-ended scheme offer. The TFA therefore welcomes the tightening to be introduced in the 2026 scheme to avoid this.

“The TFA welcomes the £100,000 annual limit on SFI and the 25% area limit on land earmarked for enhanced over winter stubble to be added to the other restricted options. It is essential that SFI creates an environment within which food production and environmental outcomes can be produced side-by-side rather than having to choose one over the other. Too many successful farm businesses were finding their access to land severely restricted given the availability of an open ended SFI offering.  What has been proposed by DEFRA will provide sufficient headroom for hard-working, active farmers to take part in the scheme, whilst removing the incentive for non-active landowners to take an unreasonable share of the pot of available funding,” said Mr Dunn.

However, there is still uncertainty around the level of the available budget with discussions ongoing with DEFRA. The TFA expects that the June window announced for small farmers or those without an Environmental Land Management Scheme will not be as demand hungry as the September opening for all farmers. It will be essential to ensure that there is sufficient budget available to meet the demand later in the year.

“We welcome the commitment from DEFRA to work with the industry to ensure that there is transparency over the level of the budget. It is vital that we have clarity on that soon given the commitments that have been made to the industry about the way in which the budget for farming-related schemes would be reallocated and to ensure adequate capacity for the likely scheme uptake,” said Mr Dunn.

The TFA has also raised concerns of individuals who are getting close to the end of other environmental schemes and are keen not to have a gap before they are able to join SFI.

“DEFRA and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) are alive to the issue of ending legacy schemes and the need to ensure a smooth transition into SFI. Although no commitment has been provided as yet, DEFRA and RPA are continuing to work with us to provide the flexibility for individuals in these circumstances to prepare their SFI applications in parallel with their participation in existing schemes so that they can switch from one to the other without a gap,” said Mr Dunn.

-Ends-

MR26/04

23 February 2026

Notes to the Editor:

For media enquiries, contact Julia Meadows, TFA Communications and Events Coordinator, on a or 07887 777157.