The SFI actions that left the offer
A 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.
What happened
The SFI 2026 offer is smaller than the expanded offer that ran through 2024. A set of actions farmers could enter then does not appear in GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current offer, and their individual action pages have been taken down; the collected record is the SFI 2024 actions print version. Defra published its reasons action by action when the offer was announced. Some of these actions had low uptake, with alternatives remaining that Defra names. Others, the assessment-and-plan actions and hedgerow trees among them, had very high uptake but were judged poor value for money because they do not deliver direct environmental benefits. In several cases the removed action's job is carried on by actions that stayed.
Source: GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer, checked 23/08/2026; Defra Farming blog, SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect, 24/02/2026, checked 23/08/2026.
If you hold one of these actions
Defra has said in as many words that removal from the new offer does not reach back into agreements already made. Asked on its own blog whether a 2024 agreement would be rolled over without the actions that had gone, Defra replied that SFI24 actions "will not be removed from existing agreements" and "will continue for the full length of the agreement". That is a reply under a blog post rather than a line in the scheme rules, which is part of what it is, but it is Defra saying it on GOV.UK. What you cannot do is add these actions to a new application.
Source: Defra Farming blog, SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect, 24/02/2026, in a reply from The Team dated 04/03/2026, checked 23/08/2026.
The actions, and where their jobs went
GOV.UK has taken every one of these action pages down, so the address each action used to sit at now answers gone. The collected record is the SFI 2024 actions print version, and every rate below was read from it. Each action also has a full Tilth guide, written for existing holders, with the rate, the money worked through, and the evidence.
| Code | Action | Rate | Where the job went |
|---|---|---|---|
| AHW1 | Bumblebird mix | £747 per ha per year | Split back into its halves: CAHL1 for the flowers, CAHL2 for the winter bird food |
| AHW12 | Manage woodland edges on arable land | £428 per ha of strip per year | No direct successor. Defra names CAHL1 pollen and nectar mix, CAHL2 winter bird food and CAHL3 field corners and blocks as actions staying in the offer that deliver similar aims to AHW1 and AHW12 |
| CHRW1 | Assess and record hedgerow condition | £5 per 100m, one side | Removed with the other assessment-and-plan actions; no successor. CHRW2, manage hedgerows, remains in the offer |
| CHRW3 | Maintain or establish hedgerow trees | £10 per 100m, both sides | CHRW2, manage hedgerows, remains in the offer. CHRW1, the hedgerow condition assessment, left at the same time. Defra points to the capital grants BN11 and TE1 for planting new hedgerow trees |
| CIPM1 | Assess integrated pest management and produce a plan | £1,129 per year, flat | Removed with the other assessment-and-plan actions; no successor |
| CNUM1 | Assess nutrient management and produce a review report | £652 per year, flat | Removed with the other assessment-and-plan actions; no successor |
| CSAM1 | Assess soil, produce a soil management plan and test soil organic matter | £6 per ha plus £97 per agreement per year | No successor, though the plan outlives the action: GOV.UK's AHW7 page says you can use the soil management plan already produced for CSAM1 to identify land that is not at risk of erosion or runoff |
| OFA1 | Overwinter stubble (organic land) | £264 per ha per year | Defra names AHW6, basic overwinter stubble, among the alternatives; the organic conversion and maintenance payments also remain |
| OFA6 | Undersown cereal crop (organic land) | £380 per ha per year | Defra names CIPM3, companion crop, among the alternatives; the organic conversion and maintenance payments also remain |
| PRF3 | Non-mechanical robotic weeding | £101 per ha per year | PRF4, mechanical robotic weeding, stays, but it pays for camera or GPS guided hoes rather than the laser or electric weeders PRF3 covered, and GOV.UK says it will not usually be possible on combinable crops |
| SOH2 | Multi-species spring-sown cover crop | £163 per ha per year | Defra names SOH3 multi-species summer sown cover crop, CIPM3 companion crop and CSAM2 winter cover crop as alternatives delivering similar benefits |
| WBD5 | Manage intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourse | £311 per ha per year, 5 year term | WBD6, removing livestock in autumn and winter, carries part of the job. WBD4 sows a sward but only on arable land, temporary grassland or fallow, so it is not open where WBD5 sat on permanent grassland |
Source: names and rates from the SFI 2024 actions print version, which is the collected record now that the individual action pages have gone, checked 23/08/2026 for every row except CHRW1, which was read from it on 24/08/2026. Status from GOV.UK's funding finder listing of the current SFI offer, checked 23/08/2026. Where a note says Defra names something, that is from the Defra Farming blog, SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect, 24/02/2026, checked the same day, the CSAM1 note is from GOV.UK's AHW7 action page, also checked the same day, and the PRF3 note's description of what PRF4 pays for is from GOV.UK's PRF4 action page, checked 24/08/2026. The rest of the where-the-job-went notes are Tilth's own reading, set out in full on each linked guide.
Defra's blog on the new offer puts the change at 71 actions, down from 102 in SFI 2024, with 31 removed. The twelve above are the ones with a full Tilth guide, so most of what left is not covered here. Defra removed five of the assessment-and-plan actions together, calling them the planning actions and giving the same reason for each. Four are in the table above. The fifth is CMOR1, assess moorland and produce a written record, which has no guide here. Where an action was written up before its page came down, we keep the guide; where nobody wrote one, your agreement documents are the record of what you hold.
Source: Defra Farming blog, SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect, 24/02/2026, checked 23/08/2026, for the counts and for the phrase planning actions, which is Defra's own and is the reason it gives for removing each of the five; the SFI 2024 actions print version for CMOR1's name, checked 24/08/2026.
The dates that matter now
One thing joins those two dates. 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.
Sources
- GOV.UK, Find funding for land or farms, filtered to the Sustainable Farming Incentive, listing the current SFI26 offer, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, SFI 2024 actions, print version, checked 23/08/2026
- Defra Farming blog, SFI26: details, definitions and what to expect, 24/02/2026, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.5, Limited area SFI actions, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, SFI26 limited area actions calculator (sfical1 v4.0, June 2026), checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, AHW7 action page, checked 23/08/2026
- GOV.UK, PRF4 action page, checked 24/08/2026
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. Check the scheme rules and your own agreement before acting.