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 |
| 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 |
| CIGL1 | Take grassland field corners or blocks out of managementYou take corners or blocks of grassland out of management altogether, uncut, ungrazed and unfertilised, so tussocky grass builds up as year-round habitat and a home for the insects that work your fields. | £333 | 3 years |
| CIGL2 | Winter bird food on improved grasslandYou manage improved grassland so the grass runs up and sets seed, cutting silage or hay in a way that lets seed form and leaving the aftermath ungrazed, so the standing seed feeds farmland birds through autumn and winter. | £515 | 3 years |
| CIGL3 | 4m to 12m grass buffer strip on improved grasslandA grass buffer strip of 4 to 12 metres along the features of a grass field, hedgerows, walls, ditches, watercourses, woodland or historic features, kept as an intact sward all year, grazeable but never cut for hay or silage, with nothing applied to it. | £235 | 3 years |
| CLIG3 | Manage grassland with very low nutrient inputsYou run grassland on very low nutrient inputs, capped at the equivalent of 12 tonnes of cattle muck a hectare, grazing or cutting it so flowering grasses and wildflowers come through and the sward varies in height into autumn. | £151 | 3 years |
| CNUM2 | Legumes on improved grasslandGet legumes, clovers, sainfoin, lucerne or bird's foot trefoil, established and kept going in improved grassland, either oversown into the existing sward or sown as a fresh grass and legume mix, then graze or cut as usual. | £102 | 3 years |
| CSAM3 | Herbal leysA multi-species ley of grasses, legumes and herbs, which you can graze and cut. | £224 | 3 years |
| GRH12 | Manage rough grassland for upland breeding waders (instead of GRH1: Manage rough grazing for birds which was available in the SFI24 offer)Run rough upland-fringe grassland for nesting curlew, lapwing, snipe and redshank: light stocking through the breeding season, no machinery among the nests, rushes held to scattered patches, the damp places left wet, and the growth grazed off after the birds have gone. | £203 | 3 years |
| HEF6 | Manage historic and archaeological features on grasslandKeep grassland over a historic or archaeological feature as an intact, well-managed sward: minimal bare ground, scrub, bracken and pernicious weeds, no cultivation, and no feeding or traffic within about 6 metres of the feature itself. | £55 | 3 years |
| OFC1 | Organic conversion – improved permanent grasslandThe conversion payment for improved grassland going organic: farm it to organic standards under your control body's approved plan through the conversion period, and register it fully organic before the action ends. | £187per hectare per year during conversion | 1 year, applied for in up to 2 consecutive years to cover the conversion period |
| OFC2 | Organic conversion – unimproved permanent grasslandThe conversion payment for unimproved grassland and rough grazing going organic, the family's lowest rate for the land whose management changes least. | £96per hectare per year during conversion | 1 year, applied for in up to 2 consecutive years to cover the conversion period |
| 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 |
| OFC4 | Organic conversion – horticultural landThe conversion payment for vegetable and salad ground going organic, the family's second highest rate for the land where conversion costs most per hectare. | £874per hectare per year during conversion | 1 year, applied for in up to 2 consecutive years to cover the conversion period |
| OFM2 | Organic land management – unimproved permanent grasslandThe maintenance payment for organic unimproved grassland and rough grazing: keep the fully organic registration and comply with your control body's standards. | £41 | 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 |
| 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 |
| UPL1 | Moderate livestock grazing on moorlandGraze moorland at a moderate density, never more than 0.16 grazing livestock units per hectare, with no feeding beyond mineral licks, and a written stocking calendar produced at the start of each year. | £35 | 3 years |
| UPL2 | Low livestock grazing on moorlandThe middle tier of the moorland grazing family: livestock density held at no more than 0.08 grazing livestock units per hectare at any time, with the same feeding rules and written stocking calendar as its siblings. | £89 | 3 years |
| UPL3 | Limited livestock grazing on moorlandThe top tier of the moorland grazing family: livestock density held at no more than 0.04 grazing livestock units per hectare at any time, the moor grazed only just, with the family's feeding rules and written stocking calendar. | £111 | 3 years |
| UPL8 | Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 4 months)Shepherd the moor rather than just stock it: all livestock except resident ponies off for at least 4 consecutive calendar months a year, and while stock graze, keep them herded away from the features that grazing damages. | £74 | 3 years |
| UPL10 | Shepherding livestock on moorland (remove stock for at least 8 months)The long-rest version of the shepherding action: all livestock except resident ponies off the moor for at least 8 consecutive calendar months a year, and actively herded away from sensitive features in the months they are on. | £102 | 3 years |
| WBD5 | Manage intensive grassland adjacent to a watercourseno longer publishedThe five year watercourse sward: intensive sloping grassland beside water re-sown with a five grass species mix, held intact year round, grazed and cut in season, empty of stock and starved of nitrogen through the wet months. Not in the SFI 2026 offer; for existing agreement holders. | £311 | 5 years |
| WBD6 | Remove livestock from intensive grassland during the autumn and winter (outside SDAs)Take every animal off intensive grassland that drains straight into a watercourse for at least 5 consecutive autumn and winter months, so the wet months do not turn the field into a compacted, poached source of runoff. | £115 | 3 years |
| WBD7 | Remove livestock from grassland during the autumn and winter (SDAs)The Severely Disadvantaged Area version of the winter livestock removal: every animal off grassland that drains into a watercourse for the whole of autumn and winter, usually early October to mid-March. | £115 | 3 years |
Rates are per hectare per year unless the row says otherwise, as published on GOV.UK. Last checked 20/09/2026.