A summary of the latest update to the Agricultural Transition Plan.
The latest update to the Agricultural Transition Plan published by DEFRA came with changes to the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) and Countryside Stewardship (CS), two of the schemes available to farmers and landowners. The main focus is ensuring that food production goes hand in hand with the environment. By supporting productivity, innovation and food production it is hope the uptake of schemes will be increased by farmers throughout 2024.
The main changes proposed are:
- Increasing payment rates by an average of 10% for SFI and CS agreements
- Increasing the number of actions on offer in our 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
- Paying a premium for high ambition actions or for delivering packages of actions that will achieve greater environmental benefits
- Continuing to prioritise an ‘advise and prevent’ approach across schemes and regulation which will make things fairer for all farmer participating in schemes
Also in the line-up for improvement are the offers available to upland farmers. In previous years, upland farmers were disadvantaged by extremely low payment rates compared to the equivalent options on lowland. Following feedback from farmers and stakeholders, last year the payment rates were increased so that upland and lowland rates are equal.
To enhance this, for 2024 5 new actions have been developed, which will more comprehensively and fairly reward the actions taken in moorland settings. Some of the actions have been developed with levels, such as 3 range of livestock density, so applicants can choose the level that best fits their moorland and their business. Alongside grazing management options, there are options for general moorland management and non-peat soils management.
The full list of new moorland and upland peat actions is shown in the table below:
If you would like any further information on the above or would like a general chat about how schemes might work for your farm, please contact Rebecca on either 07510071772 or rebecca@jaagriculture.co.uk.
