AHW1Bumblebird mix
Not in the current Sustainable Farming Incentive offer, so you cannot apply for this action now. GOV.UK have taken this action's own page down, on 06/05/2026. If you already hold it in an agreement, your agreement runs on under the terms you signed, and the payment shown here is the rate that applied while it was open.
The 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.
What it actually is
One thing before anything else, because it changes who this page is for. This action sits in the SFI 2024 expanded offer, and the SFI 2026 offer that followed it does not include it: GOV.UK have taken the action's own page down, so its wording and rate now stand in the SFI 2024 actions print version, its compatibility lists name no SFI26 actions, and it does not appear in GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer. The current offer splits this action's job back into its halves, CAHL1's pollen and nectar mix for the insects and CAHL2's winter bird food for the birds. So if you hold AHW1 in an existing agreement, this page is for you for the rest of that agreement's term; if you are planning a new application, this is not an action you can add to it. Check your own agreement, and treat your agreement documents as the authority on what you hold.
Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 205, and GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer, both checked 23/08/2026.
AHW1 and its successors CAHL1 and CAHL2 are all limited area actions, and an AHW1 agreement still live on the day you apply counts against the same 25 per cent the successors would draw on. How the 25 per cent limit works.
Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, sections 4.5.1 and 4.5.2 including table 2, and the SFI26 limited area actions calculator, both checked 23/08/2026.
The action itself: blocks or strips sown with a multi-annual mix doing two jobs at once, at least 6 flower species for the pollinators and at least 6 seed-bearing crops for the birds, with no more than 3 cereals from barley, oats, rye, triticale and wheat. The established mix stands until the end of its second summer after sowing, then is re-established. No pesticides on it, beyond herbicides to weed wipe or spot treat. GOV.UK's stated aim is food for farmland birds and for the bumblebees, solitary bees, butterflies and hoverflies, with biodiversity and pest management the wider intent.
Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 205, checked 23/08/2026.
What it pays, and what that comes to
The rate is in the panel at the top of this page. Multiplied out:
| Over 3 years | £2,241 per hectare |
| 3 ha (7.4 acres) | £2,241 a year, £6,723 over the agreement |
Source: arithmetic on the payment rate shown at the top of this page, which comes from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carries its own last-checked date. The 3 hectares is an illustration.
Is it worth it on your ground?
For existing holders only, so briefly: the mix costs real seed money, a 12-species multi-annual mix is the dear end of the catalogue, plus establishment, and the two-summer stand halves the sowing bill against an annual mix. Whether the rate beats the ground's margin was answered at entry; what remains live is keeping the stand worth its rate to the end of the term, which the section below is for.
Source: the payment rate at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 205, checked 23/08/2026. The judgements are Tilth's own reading rather than scheme guidance.
Does it work, and what makes it work better
This section is what we have found in published sources about the practice this action pays for. It is not scheme guidance, it is not Defra's or the RPA's view, and it adds no requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out. We have named every source and given the date we checked it. What it means for your ground is your decision.
The bumblebird is two assessed practices in one stand, and both sit in Conservation Evidence's top category. Planting wild bird seed or cover mixture is Beneficial on 49 studies, scored 100 per cent for effectiveness and 65 per cent for certainty: of thirty studies on birds, twenty-one found positive effects, fourteen UK studies including a systematic review finding higher abundance, density and species richness on sown cover than on other farmland habitats, six finding birds actively preferred it, and a review crediting cover crops among the measures behind a substantial grey partridge recovery, against nine studies from France and the UK reporting mixed or negative results. Planting nectar flower mixtures is Beneficial on 104 studies, scored 100 per cent for effectiveness and 75 per cent for certainty, the strongest-evidenced action anywhere on this site, and its full account is on our CAHL1 page, as the bird mix's is on CAHL2.
Source: Conservation Evidence, action 594, Plant wild bird seed or cover mixture, and action 442, Plant nectar flower mixture/wildflower strips, Farmland Conservation synopsis, both checked 23/08/2026, including their note that studies are not directly comparable or of equal value.
What the record does not carry is a measurement of the combined stand itself: whether one mix doing both jobs feeds either constituency as well as the dedicated mixes do. The action's design says yes by specification, six of each; the studies were of single-purpose stands, and we found nothing testing the compromise.
Source: the assessed practices above set against the mix requirement, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 205, checked 23/08/2026. The reading is Tilth's own.
What you actually have to do
Establish the mix, at least 6 flower species and at least 6 seed-bearing crops with no more than 3 cereals, as blocks or strips, and maintain it until the end of the second summer after sowing, then re-establish it. Apply no pesticides beyond weed-wipe or spot-treatment herbicides. Keep the field records and seed invoices that show the mix and the dates.
Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 205, checked 23/08/2026.
Things worth watching
This section is Tilth's own reading of where this action is easy to get wrong. It is not scheme guidance, it is not sourced from Defra or the RPA, and none of it adds a requirement beyond what the GOV.UK action page sets out.
The second summer is the requirement people forget. The stand is multi-annual by rule: taking it out after one winter because it looks tired fails the action. Tired second-summer stands are also normal, which is why the re-establishment follows.
Twelve species is a floor with a receipt. The seed invoice naming 6 flowers and 6 seed crops is the cheapest compliance document the action has. A merchant's standard bumblebird mix does not automatically meet this page's counts; check the label against the rule.
The halves are the succession plan. When the agreement ends, the ground and habit this action built transfer naturally to CAHL1 and CAHL2 in the current offer, and holders planning past their end date are planning between those two pages.
Keeping the evidence
Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 205, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.
The part only your own ground can answer
Whether the bumblebird's corner earned its keep, and which half of its job your ground most needs carried on when the agreement ends, are answers living in your own records and your own hedgerows at dawn. Tilth keeps the records half. Request an invite.
Sources
- GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version (v1.1b, August 2024), page 205, which is the collected record of every action in the re-opened SFI 2024 offer. It stands here in place of the AHW1 action page, which GOV.UK have taken down, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, Find funding for land or farms, filtered to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, SFI26 limited area actions calculator (sfical1 v4.0, June 2026), checked 23/08/2026
- Conservation Evidence, Plant wild bird seed or cover mixture, action 594, Farmland Conservation synopsis. Cite as Dicks, L.V., Ashpole, J.E., Danhardt, J., James, K., Jonsson, A., Randall, N., Showler, D.A., Smith, R.K., Turpie, S., Williams, D.R. and Sutherland, W.J. (2020) Farmland Conservation, pages 283 to 321 in: Sutherland, W.J., Dicks, L.V., Petrovan, S.O. and Smith, R.K. (eds) What Works in Conservation 2020, Open Book Publishers, Cambridge, checked 23/08/2026
- Conservation Evidence, Plant nectar flower mixture/wildflower strips, action 442, Farmland Conservation synopsis, cited as above, checked 23/08/2026
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scheme rules are set by Defra and the Rural Payments Agency and can change. This page is Tilth's plain English summary and is not official guidance, nor is it endorsed by Defra or the RPA. You cannot apply for this action now. If you hold it in an agreement, your own agreement documents are the authority on what you signed for. The action's own page on GOV.UK has gone, so the link here goes instead to the GOV.UK publication that still sets the action out. This rate is not being checked any more. It is the rate that applied when the action closed on 06/05/2026.