GCA PROG DEL RPA SUSTAINABLE FARMING INCENTIVE (360G-cabinetoffice-G2-GA-2025111677238-24-25)

The aim of the SFI scheme is to provide funding for farmers to make environmental improvements through activities such as improving wildlife habitats, maintaining and improving soils and encouraging the sustainable management of woodland. It will pay farmTo assess scheme design, approaches and the operability of scheme administration, guidance and advisory support, systems and processesTo learn, innovate and improve prior to full rollout in 2024To set the direction of travel for environmental land management schemesTo build confidence in delivery and amongst stakeholdersdrive a positive user experienceObjectivesto examine how the schemes, and the way that they are designed and administered, interact, operate at scale and in the real worldto provide pilot participants with a positive user experience to help build confidence in the new schemes to learn and improve.The aims and objectives are at the heart of the pilot Learning Strategy, at Appendix 31, which sets out exactly what and how learning throughout the scheme pilots will take place.The primary mechanism for co-design however will be piloting. As well as continuation of our test and trials programme which will continue to inform our scheme development, we plan to start the pilot of the Sustainable Farming Incentive in 2021, expanding in the following year. Piloting for our Local Nature Recovery scheme will follow from 2022. For Landscape Recovery we plan to progress by launching 10 long-term projects between 2022 and 2024. While these are less like pilots in nature due to their longer term commitment, we will use those 10 projects as a test bed to learn about and adapt our approach to commissioning large-scale land use change projects. Piloting will provide opportunity for up to 5,500 farmers and land managers to help us learn and co-design the full schemes.Hence from 22 we will begin the full roll-out of the SFI and the annual health and welfare review vets visits, offering early elements which will expand and extend through the transition period enabling widespread uptake of environmental, climate change and business sustainability improvements. It will also support resilience in the farming sector by creating a route for most farmers to generate income from delivery of environmental services as direct payments are phased out. This live scheme will build on what has already be delivered through the SFI pilot and we will continue to iterate and learn.Sub-Outcome: 1.4 - Thriving plants and wildlife (terrestrial and marine)