How forestry and hedging can work alongside the SFI
Forestry can be integrated with the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) through a range of practices that combine tree planting with agricultural activity - generating a consistent income from sustainable land management.
The Sustainable Farming Incentive is a government scheme that pays farmers and land managers to carry out actions that improve the environment. It replaced much of the old Basic Payment Scheme and is designed to reward land management practices that deliver environmental public goods - things like carbon sequestration, improved water quality, and biodiversity enhancement.
The SFI isn't the biggest payout, but it is consistent. If you have patches of land - up to 25% of your farm - that are a bit hit or miss in terms of return, the SFI can be a good option both financially and environmentally. And unlike unpredictable harvest income, it's a stable annual payment.
Farmers can create and manage new woodland, or manage existing woodland, to promote biodiversity, sequester carbon, and improve climate resilience. This is one of the most straightforward ways trees and the SFI work together.
A form of agroforestry where trees are introduced into arable fields. This reduces soil erosion, improves water management, sequesters carbon, enhances biodiversity and provides shelter for crops. It allows arable farming to continue alongside a tree-planting benefit.
Trees introduced into livestock production and forage grassland. The trees provide shelter for livestock, sequester carbon, offer secondary food sources and enhance biodiversity - while the land continues to support grazing.
All three of these approaches require trees and hedging that establish well and are fit for purpose over the long term. That's exactly what we produce. Our peat-free, cell-grown stock - grown from scratch in Suffolk - is well-suited to SFI woodland and agroforestry schemes, with the Plant Healthy and UKISG certifications that many schemes and advisors require.
We're not land agents or SFI advisors, but we're happy to talk through what species and quantities might work for your land, and to point you in the right direction. For full scheme details, see the Government's SFI scheme guidance.