The Rural Payments Agency has released ‘almost complete’ guidance around eligibility for the new Sustainable Farming Incentive 2026 (SFI26) Window 1, which opens in June. The first farmers will be invited forward from 18 June, with the rest able to apply from 30 June.
There will be two application windows for SFI26:
- Window 1: June 2026
- Window 2: September 2026
To qualify for Window 1, a farm business must:
- have had an SBI and agricultural land linked to it on 1 January 2026;
- have at least 3ha of agricultural land linked to the SBI at the point of application; and
- qualify under as either a small farm or a farm without an existing ELM agreement
Small farms
A small farm is a farm business with 50ha or less of agricultural land (as defined below) linked to its SBI on 1 January 2026.
Farms without existing ELM agreements
Larger farms still qualify for Window 1 if they did not have a live RPA-administered ELM revenue agreement on 1 January 2026.
An ELM scheme includes:
- SFI agreements
- Countryside Stewardship Mid Tier
- Higher Tier / HLS agreements.
For SFI26 purposes, agricultural land includes land mapped by the RPA as:
- arable land
- permanent grassland
- permanent crops.
This is important because eligibility appears to rely heavily on how land is classified on the RPA’s digital maps.
Window 2 will be open to everybody including those recently registered.
Potential applicants should also note the offer has reduced to 71 options from 102 in previous rounds, and some eligibility and values have altered. There are 10 ‘limited area options’ which cannot make up more than 25% of land farmed. Businesses will only be allowed one SFI26 agreement, with a £100k cap per annum, and cannot add land at a later date.