Latest figures on SFI uptake show rising popularity for Expanded Offer agreements
The latest figures on the number of Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements and the number of agreements containing each action have been published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
The data shows that there are 6,900 live SFI Expanded Offer agreements on farms in England as of 1 January 2025 - over a seven-and-a-half fold increase in Expanded Offer agreements compared to Defra's October 2024 data release. The total number of live SFI agreements is 32,200.
In terms of the actions being delivered by the agreements, the Defra commentary identifies a number of key messages in respect of the highest uptake being in the southwest, planning actions being the most popular, whilst also noting SAM1/CSAM1 (Assess soil, test soil organic matter and produce a soil management plan) is the most popular action in both iterations of the scheme.
With the increasing popularity of the scheme, the amount of land being taken out of production has understandably increased. Defra’s metric of choice for measuring this is the percentage of Utilisable Agricultural Area – this is now rising to 3.4%, and 295,000ha.
However, the increase in agreements is not directly proportionate to the areas in which actions are being implemented – with 11% of the area of land being temporarily taken out of production by the scheme having been from agreements entered into since October 2024; during which time 21% of agreements have been put in place.
Rural Payment Agency figures as of 17 February 2025 show there are 11,476 live SFI Expanded Offer agreements.
This means that in respect of agreement numbers, the Expanded Offer is proving more popular than the SFI 2023 offer, which had only 7,028 live agreements in February last year. However, how these correlate in terms of action uptake is currently unclear.
It is hoped that this larger dataset, which will be reported on in April 2025, together with a full year’s worth of action breakdown, will give a better indication of the appetite of farmers to commit further land to the scheme.
In April the outcome of the Government's ongoing spending review should be known, and this will provide an indication of Defra's intentions for the scheme's development and evolution.
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