Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will make an estimate of the expected return on investment from the Sustainable Farming Incentive.

There are now 37,000 live Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) agreements. This means 4.3 million hectares of land are now in SFI agreements.

As a result, returns on these agreements include:

• 800,000 hectares of arable land being farmed without insecticides reducing harm to pollinators and improving soil health
• 300,000 hectares of low input grassland being managed sustainably helping to protect biodiversity and improve water quality
• 75,000 kilometres of hedgerows being protected and restored providing essential habitats for wildlife, improving carbon storage, and strengthening natural flood defences.

We are evolving the SFI offer and are exploring ways to better target the money for instance, potentially towards smaller farmers, the least productive land or delivering specific outcomes. We will provide further details about the reformed SFI offer once the Spending Review has been completed.