Official Statistics

CS, ES and SFI option uptake data April 2025

Published 8 May 2025

Applies to England

Main messages

• There are 77,000 live agri-environment agreements.

• As of 1st April 2025, there are 32,200 agreements in Countryside Stewardship (CS, excluding capital grants), 5,500 agreements in Environmental Stewardship (ES), 25,300 agreements in Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) 2023 and 14,000 agreements in SFI Expanded Offer.

• There are 49,500 businesses in agri-environment schemes. This includes  32,600 businesses with an SFI agreement, 34,000 businesses with a CS agreement (excluding capital grants) and 4,800 businesses with an ES agreement.

• The ITL2 areas with the highest SFI and Countryside Stewardship uptake are Devon, East Anglia and North Yorkshire. Uptake is lowest in ITL2 regions with large urban areas - London, the West Midlands, Merseyside and Greater Manchester.

Background

Countryside Stewardship (CS), Environmental Stewardship (ES) and the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) are land management schemes that provide funding to land managers for carrying out actions that benefit the environment.  

The Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme 2023 (SFI23) was launched in October 2023. Data on uptake of this scheme was first published in April 2024.

SFI23 closed to new applications in June 2024 and was succeeded by the Sustainable Farming Incentive Expanded Offer.  The SFI Expanded Offer opened on 31st May 2024 using a “controlled rollout”, where applicants had to register their interest with RPA and were then invited to apply. The scheme closed to new applications on 11th March 2025.

This is the third annual statistical release, to update uptake of SFI, CS and ES as of April 2025.In addition, a breakdown of agreements by ITL2 (using an improved method) and the number of businesses in ES, CS and SFI is reported in this release.

Option Uptake

The most popular Countryside Stewardship options are “Sheep netting” (FG2), “Permanent grassland with very low inputs outside SDAs” (GS2), and “Management of hedgerows” (BE3).

The most popular Environmental Stewardship options are “Non-payment option - permanent grassland for Article 13” (A13), “Farm Environment Record FER” (EA1) and “Hedgerow management for landscape on both sides of a hedge” (EB2).

Excluding the management payment, the most popular action in terms of both agreements and land area is “Assess soil, test soil organic matter and produce a soil management plan” (SAM1) in SFI23 with 18,500 agreements. Similarly, “Assess soil, test soil organic matter and produce a soil management plan” (CSAM1) in the SFI Expanded Offer is the most popular action, with 7,000 agreements.

If we exclude planning and assessment options, the action that covers the most area in SFI23 is “No use of insecticide on arable crops and permanent crops” (IPM4), with 718,000 hectares. The action in the SFI expanded offer that covers the most land is “Variable rate application of nutrients” (PRF1), covering 363,000 hectares.

The action that covers the most land within Countryside Stewardship is the grassland management option (GS2) with 329,000 ha. The action covering the most land within Environmental Stewardship is the “Farm environment record” (EA1) which covers 865,000 ha of land.

Number of businesses in agri-environment schemes

On April 1st 2025, there were 34,000 businesses with Countryside Stewardship agreements and 4,800 businesses with agreements in Environmental Stewardship. There were 32,600 businesses with SFI23 and SFI Expanded Offer agreements.

Businesses who have agreements in both SFI23 and SFI Expanded Offer are only counted once in this total.

Two totals are calculated for the number of businesses participating in ES, CS, and SFI. The first total, 49,500 businesses, excludes CS Capital agreements, while the second total, 52,000 businesses, includes them.

Table 1: Number of businesses with agreements in agri-environment schemes

Scheme	Number of Businesses
Environmental Stewardship	4,800
Countryside Stewardship without Capital Agreements	27,200
Countryside Stewardship with Capital Agreements	11,900
Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023	23,600
Sustainable Farming Incentive Expanded Offer	13,000
Total Sustainable Farming Incentive	32,600
Total Countryside Stewardship	34,000
Total Environmental Stewardship	4,800
Total Agri-Environment schemes without CS Capital	49,500
Total Agri-Environment schemes with CS Capital	52,000

Number of agreements by ITL2 region

We have improved the method used to calculate the number of agreements per ITL2 region. This means you should not compare the results in this dataset to previous years.

Previously, the ITL2 area was determined by using the postcode of the address where the agreement was registered. This does not always give us the location the actions are being carried out in. A good example of this is where a land agent registers agreements they submit on behalf of farm businesses, using their own address for many applications.

The method used in this publication uses the location of the land parcels under the agreement. Where an agreement involves land in more than one ITL2 region, we have assigned the agreement to the ITL2 area with the highest number of land parcels.

Figure 1 shows uptake of SFI, CS and ES per ITL2 area. The accompanying dataset gives uptake per ITL2 area. More information about ITLs (International Territorial Levels) can be found here.

Numbers have been rounded so may not sum to totals. Agreements where region is unknown have been excluded.

Figure 1: Heatmap of English ITL2 areas showing total agri-environment scheme uptake

Figure 2: Heatmap of English ITL2 areas showing CS uptake

Figure 3: Heatmap of English ITL2 areas showing ES uptake

Figure 4: Heatmap of English ITL2 areas showing SFI23 uptake

Figure 5: Heatmaps of English ITL2 areas showing SFI Expanded Offer uptake

Text description of Figure 1, 2, 3, 4, 5: Heatmaps of English ITL2 areas showing SFI, ES, CS uptake, showing areas with a greater number of agreements in darker colours and areas with fewer agreements in lighter colours.

Source: Eurostat Geographic Information System

The highest number of SFI and CS agreements is seen in Devon, followed by East Anglia and North Yorkshire. The lowest numbers are in areas with large urban centres, such as London, West Midlands (Birmingham), Merseyside and Greater Manchester. The number of agreements per region will be affected by the number of eligible businesses per region, as well as the predominant type of farming activity.

The highest number of ES agreements are in Cumbria, East Anglia, North Yorkshire, Dorset and Somerset. The lowest uptake for ES is also in areas with large urban centres such as London, West Midlands and Merseyside.

About these statistics

Data

These statistics are created using Rural Payments Agency data. With the exception of the International Territorial Levels (ITL2)[https://www.ons.gov.uk/methodology/geography/ukgeographies/eurostat], this is sourced from the Office for National Statistics.

Revisions policy

This release has no scheduled revisions. Unscheduled revisions will follow the Defra policy on revisions and corrections.

Future publications

The next release of these statistics will be in May 2026.  All previously published data is available at here. 

Definitions 

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI)

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme offers payments to land managers for carrying out activities that benefit the environment on their land. The SFI Pilot launched in 2021, followed by a limited rollout of the full scheme in 2022 (SFI22). All agreements from SFI22 closed on 31st March 2023 and many agreement holders started to new agreements in SFI23. SFI23 was opened in October 2023 and was open to applications until June 2024, when it was superseded by the SFI Expanded Offer.  The information presented here relates to SFI23 and the SFI Expanded Offer. 

SFI23 closed to new applications in June 2024 and was succeeded by the Sustainable Farming Incentive Expanded Offer.  The SFI Expanded Offer opened on 31st May 2024 using a “controlled rollout”, where applicants had to register their interest with RPA and were then invited to apply. The scheme closed to new applications on 11th March 2025.

Information about the SFI Expanded Offer can be found here

Countryside Stewardship

Countryside Stewardship offers funding to farmers and land managers for managing land in ways that protect, restore, or enhance the environment, while also helping to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

Information about Countryside Stewardship can be found here.

Environmental Stewardship

Environmental Stewardship is a land management scheme that provides funding to land managers for carrying out actions to benefit the environment.

Information about Environmental Stewardship can be found here.

Action Groups

Actions are grouped to show actions that have a similar theme. These groups were developed by Defra.

Funding Type

Funding type shows whether the action is a revenue action or a capital item. Revenue items mean the agreement holder is paid for ongoing work, such as setting aside land for wildlife for several years. Capital items mean the agreement holder receives a single payment, such as claiming the cost of sheep netting.

Official status

The option uptake and business data within this publication are Official statistics. Official statistics are statistics produced by Crown bodies and other organisations included on one of the Official Statistics Orders, on behalf of the UK government and devolved administrations. These are official statistics, guided by the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics.

The ITL2 data  within this publication are an official statistic in development. Official statistics in development are official statistics that are undergoing a development; they may be new or existing statistics, and will be tested with users, in line with the standards of trustworthiness, quality, and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. 

Contact details

Katie Killick

Email: FCPStatsandReporting@defra.gov.uk