SFI26 rotational actions: how much area in years 2 and 3

The rule

The area you enter into a rotational SFI action for the first year of an SFI26 agreement is the most that action can ever hold. In the scheme rules' own words: "The area you enter for the first year of your SFI26 agreement sets the maximum area limit for that rotational SFI action. This means you cannot increase the area entered into the action above this limit for the second and third agreement years."

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.3.1, checked 21/09/2026.

What you can do in the second and third years

Three things, and the rules give each of them plainly.

You can move it. Section 4.3 says a rotational action can go on a different eligible land parcel for the second and third years, and that parcel can be one already in your SFI26 agreement or a new one you add.

You can take the area down: "You can decrease the area entered into a rotational SFI action for the second and third agreement years."

And a cut in the second year does not cost you the third: "If you decrease the area for the second agreement year, you can increase it for the third agreement year. However, the area cannot be more than the maximum area limit set in the first agreement year."

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, sections 4.3 and 4.3.1, checked 21/09/2026.

The scheme rules' own example

"For example, if you enter 10ha into a rotational SFI action for the first year, this sets the maximum area limit for that action for the duration of your SFI26 agreement. You could decrease the area to 5ha for the second year and increase it back up to the maximum 10ha for the third year."

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.3.1, checked 21/09/2026.

The ceiling belongs to each action, not to the farm

Section 4.3.1 sets the limit for "that rotational SFI action", one action at a time. The agreement terms and conditions say the same thing in the language of a contract. Condition 6.3(c) lets you add land and do a rotational action on it "provided the total area (in hectares) of Agreement Land you enter into each Rotational Action is not more than the total area of Agreement Land you entered into the relevant Rotational Action for the first Agreement Year".

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.3.1, and SFI26 agreement terms and conditions, condition 6.3(c), both checked 21/09/2026.

The declaration, and the payment that waits on it

A rotational action is not something you set once and forget. You have to tell the RPA where it is going and how big it is for the year ahead, and the payment is held until you do: "You must complete and submit your rotational actions declaration towards the end of the first and second years of your SFI26 agreement. You will not be paid for the next agreement year until you do this."

The terms and conditions put a window on "towards the end". Condition 6.3(d) says the declaration is due by a date "which will be within the last two (2) months of the relevant Agreement Year", and that missing that date may affect what you are paid and may be treated as a breach of the agreement.

How it is done for an SFI26 agreement is not published yet. Section 4.3.2 says further guidance on that is still to come.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.3.2, and SFI26 agreement terms and conditions, condition 6.3(d), both checked 21/09/2026.

There is no 50 per cent floor in SFI26

Section 4.3.1 sets a maximum and publishes no minimum, and condition 6.3 of the terms and conditions does the same. Whether that stretches as far as nought is a separate question, and one the guidance leaves open, as the section after next explains.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.3.1, and SFI26 agreement terms and conditions, condition 6.3, both checked 21/09/2026.

Worth saying plainly because the 50 per cent floor is real. It belongs to the older offers, and if you hold one of those it still binds you.

The older agreements that do have a floor

If you hold an SFI 2023 agreement, the handbook lets you do the action on a larger area than the first year, or on "a lower area, as long as it's at least 50% of the area you entered into the action for the first year of your agreement".

Source: GOV.UK, SFI Handbook for the SFI 2023 offer, version 12.0, under Rotational SFI actions, checked 21/09/2026.

If you hold an SFI 2024 agreement from the expanded offer, applied for by 11/03/2025, the scheme information your agreement follows lets you "increase the area entered into the action", with no cap set on the rise, or "decrease the area, as long as it's no less than 50% of the area entered for the first year of the action's duration". Version 1.1, for agreements that started on 01/08/2024, and version 1.2, for those that started on or after 01/09/2024, both carry those two lines.

Source: GOV.UK, Agreement holder's information for SFI24 and re-opened SFI24, for which version applies, and the National Archives copies it links to of SFI scheme information: expanded offer for 2024, versions 1.1 and 1.2, section 1.4, all checked 21/09/2026.

The re-opened SFI 2024 offer puts the floor in the same place and splits on the ceiling. Its scheme information sets out two groups. The exception groups, which it names as "SFI Pilot, system issues or assisted digital", can increase the area with no limit on the extra area, and can "decrease the area, as long as it's no less than 50% of the area entered for the first year". The eligible SNS applicant group, meaning farms that started an SFI 2024 application on or after 12/01/2025 but had not sent it before applications closed on 11/03/2025, and were not in an exception group as well, could only apply for the restricted offer. Under it you "cannot increase the area entered into the action above the area you enter in your SFI 2024 application for the first year", and you "can decrease the area, as long as it's no less than 50% of the area entered for the first year". Both groups keep the floor. Only the restricted group has the ceiling.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI scheme information: re-opened offer for 2024, version 1.3, sections 1 and 1.4, checked 21/09/2026.

Can a rotational action be declared at nought?

The guidance does not settle this, so neither will we.

Nothing in section 4.3.1, and nothing in condition 6.3, says a rotational action's entry for a year may be nil. What sits either side of the question points both ways.

One reading is that making a rotational action smaller is yours to declare, not something you ask for. Section 4.3.1 says you can decrease the area for the second and third years, condition 6.3(b) lets each later year's area differ from the year before within the first-year ceiling, and condition 6.3(d) has you confirm it in the rotational actions declaration. Section 14.3 lists reducing the area in rotational actions for an agreement year as a ground for taking land out on its own, apart from a change of circumstances.

The other reading is that nought is not a smaller area but a removal. Under section 14.2 of the guidance, removing an SFI action from the agreement is something the RPA do not usually allow unless they agree there's been a "change of circumstances", and condition 6.2(b) says a removal has to be requested in writing. An action declared at nought for a year is a reduction on the first reading and a removal on the second.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, sections 4.3.1, 14.2 and 14.3, and SFI26 agreement terms and conditions, conditions 6.2 and 6.3, all checked 21/09/2026.

So if the answer decides something on your farm, ask before you declare rather than after. Email ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk with SFI in the subject line and your SBI in the message, or ring the Rural Payments Agency on 03000 200 301.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 15, checked 21/09/2026.

Static actions are the other way about

A static action is fixed in both senses: "Some SFI actions are 'static' only. This means you must do the action at the same location and on the same area each year of its duration." Nothing to move and nothing to trim.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.4, checked 21/09/2026.

Source: GOV.UK, CAHL1 action page, under Rotational or static action; SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 4.4; SFI26 agreement terms and conditions, condition 6.3; all checked 21/09/2026.

What it means before you apply

The money follows the area down with it. Section 11.2: "Your SFI26 agreement's total annual payment is based on what you've entered into your selected SFI actions (in hectares, metres or the number of features (such as ponds), as relevant)."

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, section 11.2, checked 21/09/2026.

Put those two together and the first year is where the caution costs you. The area to enter is the largest you would ever want the action to reach, on ground you could stand to give to it in a good year as well as a bad one, and then the second and third years are yours to trim. Where the action takes ground out of a crop, the sum worth doing before you send anything is the gross margin of what each hectare would otherwise have grown, field by field. Where the crop stays, as it does under no insecticide or a companion crop, the sum is what doing the action costs you on those hectares. Either way, that is what decides whether the ceiling you are about to set is the right one.

Some of these actions can only go on a quarter of your farm. That is a separate ceiling, shared between all the limited area actions, and it counts the ones you already hold in SFI 2023 and SFI 2024 agreements and in Higher Tier agreements from 2025 onwards. Our page on how the 25 per cent limit works has the detail.

Source: GOV.UK, SFI26 scheme rules and guidance, sections 4.5 and 4.5.1, checked 21/09/2026.

The rest of what to check before an application goes in is on our Window 2 checklist.

Which of our guides this applies to

AHW4, AHW5, AHW6, AHW7, AHW8, AHW9, AHW10, AHW11, CAHL1, CAHL2, CIPM3, CIPM4, CNUM2, CNUM3, CSAM2 and OFC4.

Two of those are only part rotational. CIPM4 is rotational on arable crops and static on permanent crops. OFC4 is rotational for non-permanent horticultural crops grown on arable land, and static for permanent horticultural crops. On the static part of each, the action page says you must do it at the same location each year. Each guide says which it is.

Source: GOV.UK, CIPM4 and OFC4 action pages, under Rotational or static action, both checked 21/09/2026.