Farming Practices: Sustainable Farming Incentive

Baroness Willis of Summertown Excerpts

Monday 13th July 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Willis of Summertown]

To ask His Majesty’s Government how they are assessing whether farming practices such as regenerative agriculture align with the sustainable farming incentive payments.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, the sustainable farming incentive is largely aligned with regenerative agriculture. There are actions for cover crops, no-till farming and providing insect-rich habitats. Furthermore, SFI includes actions for precision application of crop nutrients and pesticides.

[Baroness Willis of Summertown (CB)]

I thank the Minister for her response. It is good to hear that the Government will move towards increased SFI funding, with a focus on regenerative agricultural practice. However, much of the scientific evidence suggests that adopting these techniques can reduce crop yields in the first three to five years. Can the Minister reassure the House that the SFI agreements are sizeable and have long-term certainty, beyond the current Treasury settlement, so that farmers know that they will be supported through this critical five-year transition period? Without that, I believe there will be very low uptake of the SFIs.

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

When we brought in the new offer, we wanted to take away the uncertainty as to what was happening with SFIs in the longer term. We have made it clear that we will keep the main SFI offer largely stable from now until the end of this Parliament to provide certainty to farmers that we are going to continue this kind of SFI offer.