NSA welcomes Sustainable Farming Incentive progress and 2024 offer
4th January 2024
The National Sheep Association (NSA) is welcoming the release today (Thursday 4th January) of an update to Defra’s Agricultural Transition Plan that aims to further promote food production in harmony with environmental protection and enhancement.
NSA Chief Executive Phil Stocker says: “There is a lot of detail yet to digest, and even more to emerge but at first sight this is a welcome next step in England’s Agricultural Transition – a seven year period that we are now halfway through. We would expect at this stage that the new offer becomes more meaningful and hopefully more attractive to farmers and from what we’ve seen so far this is a comprehensive and progressive offer made in the plan update. Although complex at first sight we are encouraged by the intention to have a single application process that brings together the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship (CS) actions. NSA is keen to see these schemes work for farmers on the basis that we believe sheep farming already delivers in many beneficial ways for the environment, and should be rewarded for this, and, with the right incentives there is a lot more that can be done to further improve our natural resources, wildlife habitats and nature, and our impact on the climate while also enhancing enterprise productivity.
“NSA welcomes the uplift in SFI and CS payment rates and also the expanded offers for grassland and moorland options and new agroforestry actions that can work alongside grazing animals.”
The update announced to the Agricultural Transition Plan includes:
- An increase in payment rates by an average of 10% for SFI and CS agreements
- An increase in the number of actions on offer in Defra’s environmental land management schemes with up to 50 new actions
- Making schemes more flexible and easier to access, with a streamlined single application service for farmers to apply for SFI and CS Mid Tier
- Payment of a premium for high ambition actions or for delivering packages of actions that will achieve greater environmental benefits
- Prioritising an ‘advise and prevent’ approach across schemes and regulation, which will make things fairer for all farmers participating in schemes.
Mr Stocker continues: “NSA has been given clarification that this 2024 offer will be the point where we will depart from eligibility being only for those that had registered for BPS, another point of progress that NSA fully welcomes even though we can expect a steady roll out to avoid early application problems. Furthermore, NSA has received confirmation that farm carbon footprinting will be included as a funded option – and linked with advice to progress any options identified. NSA is particularly pleased about this as we see carbon footprinting being increasingly demanded by supply chains and voluntary assurance schemes, but we know it carries a cost and benefits from independent professional input.
“NSA is continuing conversations with Defra to make the case that a new ‘facilitation fund’, to support collaborative and connected environmental actions, can be extended to the facilitation of animal health actions such as the control of sheep scab, connected to the Animal Health and Welfare Pathway. This facilitation was found to be central to the success of the recent RDPE sheep scab programme ‘For Flocks Sake’.”
NSA now awaits more details as they emerge during the spring and look forward to the full 2024 offer opening later this year.
