Every SFI 2026 action, its payment rate, and a guide to each
Every action in the SFI 2026 offer, with the payment rate straight from GOV.UK and a plain English page on each. Sort the table by what an action pays. We check the rates every morning, and each page says when its rate was last looked at. The actions that have left the offer are in the list too, marked, with the rate that applied when they closed.
Rules that run across the actions
Not everything is about one action. These pages explain a rule or a change that runs across a lot of them.
- SFI limited area calculatorWork out how much of your farm can go into the limited area actions, counting what you already hold. Nothing you type leaves your browser.
- SFI payment rates 2026What the actions pay, the best by land type, what has left the offer since SFI 2024, and the 25 per cent rule.
- Before you apply, an SFI26 Window 2 checklistWindow 2 is expected to open from 22 September, with no fixed closing date. What to check on your own agreements first, how the 25 per cent limit is counted, who can apply early, and the sums worth doing before the application service opens.
- The SFI 25 per cent limit, explainedSome SFI actions can only go on a quarter of your farm. Which actions are limited, how the 25 per cent is worked out, how existing agreements count against it, and what it means for planning a Window 2 application.
- The SFI actions that left the offerA set of actions from the SFI 2024 expanded offer is not in the SFI 2026 offer. What that means if you hold one, what replaced each where anything did, and where the full guide to each action lives.
| Code | Action | Pays | Agreement |
|---|---|---|---|
| AGF1 | Maintain very low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive landKeep an existing very low density in-field agroforestry system going, an average of 30 to 50 trees per hectare in rows or a grid, replacing dead trees, protecting them from stock and pests, weeding the young ones, and pruning the established ones. | £248 | 3 years |
| AGF2 | Maintain low density in-field agroforestry on less sensitive landKeep an existing low density in-field agroforestry system going, an average of 51 to 130 trees per hectare, replacing dead trees, protecting them from stock and pests, weeding the young ones, and pruning the established ones. | £385 | 3 years |
| AHW1 | Bumblebird mixno longer publishedThe bumblebird mix: one sown stand feeding both the birds and the bees, at least six flower species and six seed-bearing crops together, kept to the end of its second summer then re-established. Not in the SFI 2026 offer; for existing agreement holders. | £747 | 3 years |
| AHW3 | Beetle banksA raised earth ridge through the middle of a field, sown to tussocky grass and left alone. | £764 | 3 years |
| AHW5 | Nesting plots for lapwingA fallow cultivated plot inside an arable crop, left bare and undisturbed from early spring until after harvest, sited well away from anything a predator can sit on. | £765 | 3 years |
| AHW8 | Whole crop spring cereals and overwinter stubbleGrow a spring cereal, cut it as whole crop silage rather than combining it, take the grain and straw off together, and then leave the stubble standing through the autumn and winter. | £596 | 3 years |
| AHW9 | Unharvested cereal headlandSow a spring cereal round the outer edges of the field at a reduced seed rate, in strips no more than about 24 metres wide, and leave it standing unharvested until around mid-February. | £1,072 | 3 years |
| AHW10 | Low input harvested cereal cropDrill an autumn or spring cereal in strips or plots at a reduced seed rate, keep it open enough for wildflowers and birds to use, and then harvest it as normal. | £354 | 3 years |
| AHW11 | Cultivated areas for arable plantsCultivate a fallow margin or plot in spring or autumn to a fine surface, then leave it completely alone until the end of the summer and let whatever is in the soil seed bank come up. | £660 | 3 years |
| AHW12 | Manage woodland edges on arable landno longer publishedLet a strip of up to 6 metres between your arable land and native woodland regenerate naturally into a mosaic of scrub and grass, and leave it be. Not in the SFI 2026 offer; for existing agreement holders. | £428per hectare of strip per year, the strip up to 6 metres wide | 3 years |
| BFS1 | 12m to 24m watercourse buffer strip on cultivated landA grass buffer strip 12 to 24 metres wide alongside a ditch, pond, river or stream, on cultivated land you have identified as being at risk of soil erosion or surface runoff. | £707 | 3 years |
| BFS6 | 6m to 12m habitat strip next to watercoursesA strip 6 to 12 metres wide next to a ditch, river, stream or canal, established as native trees and scrub with an open canopy and tussocky grass between, and kept clear of livestock and traffic. | £742 | 3 years |
| CAHL1 | Pollen and nectar flower mixA grass-free flower mix, sown in a block or a strip, kept flowering from late spring through the summer, with no fertiliser and effectively no pesticide. | £739 | 3 years |
| CAHL2 | Winter bird food on arable and horticultural landYou grow a seed mix of at least six small seed-bearing crops instead of a cash crop, and leave it standing so farmland birds can feed on it through the winter. | £648 | 3 years |
| CAHL3 | Grassy field corners or blocksTake an awkward field corner or block out of cropping and keep it as an intact grass sward, left to go tussocky, for the whole three years. | £590 | 3 years |
| CIPM2 | Flower-rich grass margins, blocks or in-field stripsYou establish a mix of grasses and wildflowers in margins, blocks or in-field strips, flowering from spring to early autumn, kept for the agreement as habitat for pollinators and for the insects that eat crop pests. | £798 | 3 years |
| CIPM3 | Companion crop on arable and horticultural landGrow a second species alongside the cash crop, by trap cropping, inter-cropping or undersowing. | £55 | 3 years, done in each year |
| CNUM3 | Legume fallowA fallow sown to a mix of at least six flowering species including legumes, left standing rather than cropped. | £532 | 3 years |
| CSAM2 | Multi-species winter cover cropYou grow a cover crop of at least two species from two or more plant families in the gap between cash crops, keep it well established over winter, and destroy it in time for the crop that follows. | £129 | 3 years |
| CSAM3 | Herbal leysA multi-species ley of grasses, legumes and herbs, which you can graze and cut. | £224 | 3 years |
| OFC3 | Organic conversion – rotational landThe conversion payment for arable ground going organic: farm the land to organic standards under your control body's approved plan through the conversion period, at conventional prices, and this pays the bridge. | £298per hectare per year during conversion | 1 year, applied for in up to 2 consecutive years to cover the conversion period |
| OFM4 | Organic land management – rotational landThe maintenance payment for organic arable land: hold the fully organic registration, comply with your control body's standards, and this pays on every registered rotational hectare. | £132 | 3 years |
| PRF1 | Variable rate application of nutrientsYou apply all your major nutrients, bag and organic alike, through variable rate equipment driven by zonal soil testing, remote sensing or crop sensors, so rates vary across the field to match what the crop needs. | £27 | 3 years |
| PRF2 | Camera or remote sensor guided herbicide sprayingYou apply your systemic herbicides through camera or sensor guided equipment that recognises the weeds and switches individual nozzles on over them, spraying the weed rather than the field. | £43 | 3 years |
| PRF3 | Non-mechanical robotic weedingno longer publishedControl weeds in a crop with a robot that finds them and destroys them with a laser or high voltage electricity, using no herbicides beyond a pre-emergence residual at establishment. Not in the SFI 2026 offer; for existing agreement holders. | £101 | 3 years |
| PRF4 | Mechanical robotic weedingControl weeds in a row crop with a robot guided by cameras or GPS whose hoes physically remove the weeds, between and within the rows, using no herbicides beyond a pre-emergence residual at establishment. | £150 | 3 years |
| SCR1 | Create scrub and open habitat mosaicsTurn a parcel with little or no scrub into a mosaic of scrub, grass and flowering plants, by natural regeneration or planting native species or both, until scrub stands on 10 to 60 per cent of it, with deadwood and old trees left where they are. | £588 | 3 years |
| SCR2 | Manage scrub and open habitat mosaicsKeep an existing scrub mosaic alive and varied: dense and scattered scrub held between 10 and 60 per cent of the area, managed by patchy cutting or light cattle grazing, with open flowery ground between, deadwood left lying and no sheep. | £350 | 3 years |
| SOH1 | No-till farmingYou sow all your seed with a direct drill or by broadcasting, with no ploughing and no cultivation between harvest and sowing, on the same land for the whole agreement. | £73 | 3 years |
| SOH3 | Multi-species summer-sown cover cropYou sow a fast-growing cover crop of at least four species in the summer months after harvest, keep it growing until the next main crop or a winter cover takes over, and destroy it no more than two weeks before the next crop is sown. | £163 | 3 years |
| WBD3 | In-field grass stripsYou put a permanent grass strip across erosion or runoff-prone arable ground, along the contour or a natural drainage line, keep it as an intact sward all year with no inputs and no stock, and cut it once in late summer. | £765 | 3 years |
| WBD4 | Arable reversion to grassland with low fertiliser inputTake arable land that is at risk of erosion or runoff, or that buffers a watercourse or sensitive habitat, and put it into a sown grass sward for three years, with low fertiliser inputs, no autumn or winter grazing, and the sward kept dense year round. | £489 | 3 years |
Rates are per hectare per year unless the row says otherwise, as published on GOV.UK. Last checked 20/09/2026.