The Rural Payments Agency have emailed some members to indicate that they may be eligible for Window 1 which is the June 2026 application opening for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) grant funding.

This window is exclusively for 2 groups; small farms and farms without an existing Environmental Land Management (ELM) revenue agreement.

Check the below to see if your farm business meets criteria;

  1. It was registered with the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), so it had an SBI by 1 January 2026 and the SBI had some agricultural land linked to it on that date.
  2. It qualifies as either a small farm, or a farm without an existing Environmental Land Management (ELM) revenue agreement – your farm business only needs to be in one of these groups. (Check the definitions of both in italics at the end of this post).
  3. It has at least 3 hectares (ha) of agricultural land linked to its SBI at the point you want to apply – this does not set a minimum area you need to enter into your SFI26 application.

If you’re eligible for Window 1 but do not apply during that window, you can still apply in Window 2 instead. Window 2 opens in September 2026.

The SFI26 full guidance has not been released but we have a good idea of what is coming. The 71 actions and their payment rates can be found here;SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect – The Farming Blog

If you would like to discuss an application, please call the office to arrange a meeting.

The definitions relevant to eligibility criteria are listed below;

  1. A small farm is defined as a farm business which had up to 50ha of agricultural land registered with the RPA and linked to its SBI on 1 January 2026.
  2. A farm without an existing ELMs agreement is one that did not have a live, RPA-administered ELM revenue agreement on 1 January 2026. (ELMS agreements are typically SFI, Countryside Stewardship (Mid and Higher Tier) or Higher Level Stewardship).