The SFI26 Window 2 closed this week, allocating its £233 million budget within hours of applications opening. We know many farmers were unable to submit their applications due to technical issues or being unavailable during the brief application window.
People may be feeling frustrated, anxious and uncertain about the future. We encourage our network to reach out to one another and farmers to check in. We are reminding the community that we are here to listen, to support and to connect people with other support available. We are also promoting the services of other charities that can support.
The following may be useful for farmers who were unable to submit their application in time:
Let the RPA know about an issue – Whilst we await further clarity from the RPA as to what they deem is a system technical issue and could allow for a post 22 September application or change to be made and what is not (updates on post SFI26 can be found in the Farming Blog link at the bottom of this page). Farmers should continue to follow up with the RPA any concerns they have including supplying any evidence to demonstrate the challenges faced.
If the system prevents you from applying for a combination SFI actions which you should be able to
apply for on the same available area within a land parcel, you need to:
• email us at ruralpayments@defra.gov.uk as soon as possible – use ‘SFI26’ in the subject
heading and include your Single Business Identifier (SBI)
• attach clear screen shots of what you’re seeing to your email
• explain what steps you took before you were prevented from applying
Complain to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) – Where farmers want to raise their concerns with the RPA the RPA guidance can be found here: Complaints procedure – Rural Payments Agency – GOV.UK
MP – Consider contacting your MP to let them know the impact.
Farmer Feedback – NFU members and non-members can tell us their situation, and we want to hear from them in order to build a full picture of experiences felt. The link to complete the short two question questionnaire (scroll down to bottom of webpage): NFU responds to SFI26 Window 2 take-up – NFUonline
Keep up to date – Defra Farming Blog https://defrafarming.blog.gov.uk/