The AHDB’s Planting and Variety Survey 2024 has revealed the majority of arable growers have not replaced harvest 2024 cropped area with SFI.
Results show that 65% of arable farm businesses in England surveyed did not reduce their cropped arable area for harvest 2024 with SFI options. While this percentage does vary regionally, considering sample size for each region too, the majority of arable farm businesses surveyed in England opted not to take cropped land out for SFI options.
This proportion aligns closely with recent Defra statistics too, covering all farming sectors, where analysis shows the majority of farms (53%) have not taken land out of production for SFI.
In addition, of the sample who had taken land out for SFI, half of them substituted equal to or less than 10% of their cropped land. While just over a quarter (27%) took 11-20% of cropped area out and just under a quarter (23%) took 21% or more of cropped area out. Overall, the larger the percentage of cropped area taken out for SFI actions on farm, the smaller the percentage uptake of farms going down that route in the sample.
This also aligns with the recent Defra SFI 2023 uptake figures, where the majority of farms had less than 10% of farmland for selected SFI options and then uptake largely reduces as area for SFI increases.
