SFI 2026 Evidence

An SFI payment is a contract: you agree to do a set of actions on named parcels for three years, you keep proof that you did them, and the agency pays on that proof. Schemes of the same design exist in every EU member state and in the United States, so the evidence you keep for one reads across to the others.

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The Law, In Plain Words

The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) is one of England’s three Environmental Land Management schemes, alongside Countryside Stewardship and Landscape Recovery [1]. It pays farmers and land managers to manage land in ways that benefit the environment while producing food. The 2026 offer is SFI26. Window 1 closed on 28 August 2026 and Window 2 opens in September 2026 [2]. Defra sets the rules and the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) runs the scheme [2][3]. Who can apply. A farmer or land manager with at least 3 hectares of arable land, permanent grassland or permanent crops, with management control of the land for the whole agreement. Common land is excluded. Each farm business holds one SFI26 agreement, with an annual value capped at £100,000 [3]. What you agree to. You choose actions and the parcels they apply to. The eligible area is worked out per land parcel, less land in another scheme or in an ineligible use. Most agreements run three years and start on the first day of the month after you accept the offer [3]. What you must keep. Each action page says what evidence proves it was done, at land parcel level: field operation records, invoices, files uploaded to equipment. You keep that evidence for at least seven years from the agreement’s end date, or from its termination date if that is earlier [3][4]. What you must file. An annual declaration, submitted by the RPA’s deadline in the last two months of each agreement year, confirming the actions were done. A missed declaration can delay payment or count as a breach [3]. How you are checked. The RPA checks by farm visit, normally with 48 hours’ notice and unannounced if it suspects a serious breach or fraud; by aerial photography and satellite imagery; and by desk checks of the records [3]. What happens if you fail. The RPA can delay or reduce a payment, recover money already paid, remove land or actions from the agreement, or end it early. A serious breach, meaning intentional, negligent or repeated, can exclude the business from financial assistance schemes for two years [3]. Nutrient actions take their evidence from the same records as the nitrogen rules. PRF1, variable rate application of nutrients, pays £27 per hectare per year for three years. Its evidence is the invoices for zonal soil testing, the variable rate file uploaded to the equipment, the “as applied” record at parcel level, the product, rate and date of any flat-rate nitrogen, and contractor invoices where a contractor did the work [4].

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Where It Applies

SFI is an England scheme. The same design, a voluntary payment for a practice above the legal baseline, checked against evidence, exists on both sides of the Atlantic. In each case the payment follows the record: an action, a parcel, a date and the proof it was done.

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What AgriHub360 Keeps

An SFI action is registered against the land parcel it was applied for, under its action code. Evidence is attached to the registered action as it is produced: the application from the applications log, the spray from the spray log, a soil test or an invoice. That is the evidence the action page names, held at land parcel level [4]. The claim pack for an agreement year gathers every registered action and its evidence into a single download. It is ready for the annual declaration and for a visit or a desk check [3]. Where an action has no evidence attached, the pack says “nothing recorded”. The evidence is kept for the period the scheme sets, and the One Compliance Vault shows that period next to each action.

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References