How your SFI agreement works
Find out about when your SFI agreement will start, what you’re agreeing to do and requesting changes to your agreement.
Applies to England
This section contains mandatory scheme requirements.
This information explains when your SFI agreement will start, what you’re agreeing to do when you enter an SFI agreement and what changes you can request once your agreement starts.
When your Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreement will start
SFI agreements do not all start on a single date. They start on the first day of each calendar month.
Your SFI agreement’s start date will depend on:
- when you submit your SFI application
- how long it takes to process so we can offer you an SFI agreement
- how quickly you accept your SFI agreement offer
The start date for your SFI agreement will be shown on your agreement document. Your SFI agreement will last for 3 years from its start date.
What you’re agreeing to do
Your SFI agreement consists of 3 elements:
- your agreement document, which you can view in the Rural Payments service
- your SFI agreement’s terms and conditions
- the SFI actions you’ve chosen
When you enter an SFI agreement, you’re agreeing to comply with the mandatory scheme requirements for the duration of your 3-year SFI agreement. This means you’re agreeing to:
- complete the SFI actions you’ve chosen, as referenced in your agreement document, as explained in the details of the SFI actions
- comply with your SFI agreement’s terms and conditions, which are further explained in the Eligibility of land for an SFI agreement and Getting paid for your SFI agreement.
Requesting changes to your SFI agreement
You’ll be able to request some changes to your SFI agreement during its 3-year term.
Upgrading your agreement
You can upgrade your SFI agreement to add more SFI actions and land.
To do this, you must submit an ‘upgrade request’ towards the end of the first and second years of your 3-year SFI agreement.
You must submit your upgrade request by the relevant deadline. We’ll tell you what date that is. We will not accept your upgrade request if we receive it after that date.
If we approve your upgrade request, you’ll need to confirm that you accept your updated SFI agreement by the date we’ll tell you. If you accept your updated SFI agreement by the date we’ll tell you, the updated agreement will usually apply from the start of the following agreement year.
If you do not accept your updated SFI agreement by the date we’ll tell you, your original agreement will continue without the upgrades you requested.
Reducing what you’re doing in your agreement or ending it early
During the 3-year term of your SFI agreement, you will not usually be able to:
- reduce what you’re doing in your agreement, by removing SFI actions or land
- end your agreement early
If you find you cannot do what’s required under your SFI agreement (a ‘change of circumstances’), we may allow you to reduce what you’re doing in your SFI agreement or end your agreement early. If we agree to let you do this, you may have to repay some, or all, of the money already paid to you.
You will not need to make a repayment for the affected agreement year if you’ve:
- completed all the SFI actions in your SFI agreement for a full agreement year
- submitted an annual declaration for the relevant agreement year
If you have not done this, you may need to make a repayment for the affected agreement year. Unlike previous schemes, there will be no additional financial ‘penalties’ applied.
If we allow you to remove land from your SFI agreement, this may affect your SFI management payment as it’s based on the area of land in your agreement, up to 50 hectares.
Read the information about what happens if you find you cannot comply with your agreement to find out more about a change of circumstances.
Transferring your agreement to another person
It will not usually be possible for you to transfer your SFI agreement to another person.
If land in your SFI agreement is transferred to another person, for example, it’s sold or a tenancy ends and there’s a new tenant, this would be a ‘change of circumstances’. You must tell us about this in writing as soon as reasonably practicable, and preferably within 8 weeks of being able to do so.
In this case, you’ll no longer have ‘management control’ of the land, so we’ll need to remove it from your SFI agreement.
When we remove the affected land from your SFI agreement, you may have to repay some, or all, of the money already paid to you for the relevant agreement year if you’ve not completed the actions and submitted your annual declaration for that year. Unlike previous schemes, there will be no additional financial ‘penalties’ applied.
Once we’ve removed the land from your SFI agreement, the new occupier will be able to either:
- apply for an SFI agreement on that land
- add the land to their existing SFI agreement, if they have one, at its annual upgrade point
Read the information about what happens if you find you cannot comply with your agreement to find out more about a change of circumstances.