CSAM1Assess soil, produce a soil management plan and test soil organic matter

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. Defra's published reasoning was that CSAM1 has very high uptake but is being removed because it does not deliver direct environmental benefits and therefore gives very low value for money. It went out as one of five planning actions taken out in the same round, alongside the IPM plan CIPM1, the nutrient management review CNUM1, the hedgerow assessment CHRW1 and the moorland record CMOR1, with the same reasoning given for each. So if you hold CSAM1 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 5, checked 23/08/2026, and the Defra farming blog post of 24/02/2026, checked 24/08/2026, which is the source of the reasoning quoted and of the list of removed actions. Oakbank's report on the SFI 2026 offer, checked 23/08/2026, reports the same removal.

The action itself: assess the soil on every land parcel entered, and produce a written soil management plan, within 12 months of the start date, reviewed annually after that. Test soil organic matter on every entered parcel within the last 5 years, retesting as results reach 5 years old, so the testing rolls. GOV.UK's stated aim is that you understand the condition of your soil and plan how to build its long-term health, productivity and resilience.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 5, checked 23/08/2026.

What it pays, and what that comes to

The rate is in the panel at the top of this page, a small per-hectare element plus a flat per-agreement element. Multiplied out:

Source: arithmetic on the payment rates shown at the top of this page, which come from Tilth's copy of the GOV.UK action catalogue and carry their own last-checked date. The hectarages are illustrations.

Is it worth it on your ground?

For existing holders only, so briefly: the money roughly covers the organic matter tests and the time to write the plan properly, which was always the design, payment for knowing rather than doing. The rolling five year testing is the part that still needs managing: results dated early in the agreement come due for retesting inside it, and the lab bill and sampling round belong in the plan's own calendar.

Source: the payment rates at the top of this page; requirements from GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 5, 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 where our pages weigh published evidence, and the honest position for an assessment action is the one our CIPM1 and CNUM1 pages take: there is nothing to weigh.

The action's product is a document and a set of test results, and no study we can cite measures whether writing a soil management plan changes what happens to soil, any more than the equivalent existed for the IPM plan or the nutrient review. What can be said plainly is mechanical rather than measured: organic matter numbers on a five year cycle are a trend line, and a trend line is the only way a farm knows whether its soil management is building anything. The actions that pay for practices, the cover crops of CSAM2, the no-till of SOH1, make claims this action's test results are how you would check on your own ground.

Source: the requirements, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 5, checked 23/08/2026. The reading is Tilth's own.

What you actually have to do

Within 12 months of the start date, assess the soil of every entered parcel and produce the written soil management plan, then review both annually. Hold a soil organic matter test result no more than 5 years old for every entered parcel, retesting as results age out. Static: the same parcels throughout.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 5, 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 rolling window catches the mid-agreement year. A test dated four years before entry expires in year one. The plan's first job is a table of test dates and their five year deadlines, parcel by parcel.

The annual review is a diary entry, not a rewrite. The plan is reviewed each year; what changed, what was learned, what next season does differently. A dated paragraph appended annually meets the shape of it.

The plan is worth keeping current beyond the agreement. With current actions accepting it as their written evidence, the CSAM1 plan is the rare scheme document with an afterlife, and holders coming to their end date have a reason to give it one last honest review.

Keeping the evidence

Source: evidence requirements, GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions print version, page 5, checked 23/08/2026. The suggestion is Tilth's own.

The part only your own ground can answer

What five years of organic matter numbers say about your management is the whole point of having them, and the answer is different on every farm that asks. Tilth keeps the results against the fields, dated, so the trend line draws itself. Request an invite.