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Official Statistics

Sustainable Farming Incentive agreement uptake and applications September 2026

Published 9 September 2026

Applies to England

© Crown copyright 2026

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/sfi-uptake-september-2026/sustainable-farming-incentive-agreement-uptake-and-applications-september-2026

1. Main messages

  • There are 48,000 live Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements, being managed by 38,300 farm businesses, as of 1st September 2026.
  • 7,000 applications were submitted to SFI 2026 during Window 1 and 3,100 SFI 2026 agreements are live.
  • Of the SFI 2026 eligible applications, 87% were from farms without an existing Environment Land Management (ELM), 69% were from farms with between 3-50 hectares and 55% met both criteria.
  • The five most popular SFI 2026 actions were Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs (CLIG3), Manage Hedgerows (CHRW2), Haymaking Supplement (GRH7), Herbal leys (CSAM3) and Manage ponds (WBD1)
  • The SFI26 average annual agreement value for window one was £9,700

2. Background

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is one of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) schemes. There are three active versions of SFI:

  • SFI 2023 launched in October 2023 and it closed to new applications in June 2024.
  • SFI Expanded Offer (SFI24) launched in May 2024 and closed in March 2025. The scheme re-opened for applications from certain eligible applicants between June and August 2025.
  • SFI 2026 launched in June 2026, with a window targeting small farms (3-50ha) and those without an existing ELM revenue agreement.  SFI 2026 window 1 closed on August 28, 2026.

3. Number of agreements and businesses in SFI

As of 1st September 2026, there are 48,000 live Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements, being managed by 38,300 farm businesses. There are 25,000 agreements in SFI 2023, 19,900 agreements in SFI Expanded Offer and 3,100 agreements in SFI 26.

One business can have multiple SFI agreements. In total, there are 38,300 businesses with an SFI agreement. 23,400 have an SFI 2023 agreement, 17,900 with SFI Expanded Offer and 3,100 with SFI 26.

Table 1: Number of agreements and businesses in SFI

Scheme Number of agreements Number of businesses
Sustainable Farming Incentive 2023 25,000 23,400
Sustainable Farming Incentive Expanded Offer (SFI24) 19,900 17,900
Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 Window 1 3,100 3,100
Total Sustainable Farming Incentive 48,000 38,300

4. Number of applications, by eligibility group

7,000 applications were submitted to SFI 2026 during Window 1.

Of the SFI 2026 eligible applications, 87% were from farms without an existing Environmental Land Management (ELM), 69% were from farms with between 3-50 hectares and 55% met both criteria. These percentages were calculated using unrounded totals.

Table 2: Number of applications by eligibility group

Eligibility group Number of applications
Farms 3-50ha with ELM revenue 900
Farms 3-50ha without ELM revenue 3,800
Farms over 50ha without ELM revenue 2,100
Ineligible applications 100
Total, including ineligible applications 7,000
Total number of eligible applications 6,900

The five SFI 2026 actions that were included in the highest number of agreements were Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs (CLIG3), Manage Hedgerows (CHRW2), Haymaking Supplement (GRH7), Herbal leys (CSAM3) and Manage ponds (WBD1).

Table 3: Top five most popular SFI 2026 actions

Action Code Action Name Amount in agreement Agreement count
CLIG3 Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputs 44,800 hectares 2,300
CHRW2 Manage Hedgerows 7,920,000 metres 1,200
GRH7 Haymaking Supplement 8,000 hectares 800
CSAM3 Herbal leys 10,200 hectares 600
WBD1 Manage ponds 1,400 items 500

6. Average agreement value

The average annual agreement value for SFI 2026 window one was £9,700. The average total agreement value over the 3-year agreement duration was £29,200.

7. About these statistics

These statistics present the number of agreements and businesses in SFI and the number of applications to SFI 2026 Window 1 broken down by eligibility group.

This is an unscheduled statistical release.

7.1 Data

These statistics are created using Rural Payments Agency data.

7.2 Methods

Applications show the number of applications made to SFI 2026 window 1. This includes applications subsequently withdrawn, rejected or deleted.

Eligibility groups reflect land holdings and agreement status recorded in RPA systems on 8th June 2026 for the 1st January reference data. This includes a small number of exceptional or subsequently amended cases.

Numbers of agreements, applications and businesses are rounded to the nearest 100. Percentages were calculated using the unrounded totals.

7.3 Revisions policy

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

7.4 Future publications

The next release of this publication will be after the closure of SFI 2026 window 2.

A separate publication will full option breakdowns has also been pre-announced CS, ES and SFI option uptake data 2026

8. Official status

This is an official statistic. 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.

9. Contact details

Katie Killick

Email: FCPStatsandReporting@defra.gov.uk

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