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Farmers frustrated by RPA warning to submit SFI claims by year end

Philip Case 15 December 2023
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© Tim Scrivener© Tim Scrivener

Farmers in England who are in the process of applying for the 2023 Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) scheme are being told to submit their applications before 31 December – or they will have to start again in the new year.

The Rural Payments Agency (RPA) is “strongly encouraging” farmers to submit their SFI applications by the year end.

Any applications not submitted by the deadline will be withdrawn, as the RPA is carrying out an “annual changeover in the service”.

See also: SFI 2023: The support options for arable growers

In a post on X (formerly Twitter), the RPA said: “Submit your application by 31 December, if you don’t want to submit a new application from 2 January 2024.”

Farmers Weekly understands the RPA has sent chaser emails to those farmers who have started their 2023 SFI applications, but have yet to submit them online.

If farmers are unable to submit their SFI claims by 31 December, they may have to pay agents to complete the work from scratch in the new year, which is causing stress and anguish for those concerned.

Arable farmer David White, who farms 160ha in Little Wilbraham, near Cambridge, is waiting for his SFI application to be accepted.

He says he is employing Brown & Co to oversee the application because of their expertise and knowledge of the claims process.

Mr White has a Mid Tier Countryside Stewardship (CS) which expires at the end of the year. He has submitted an application for a new five-year Mid Tier CS scheme, which he hopes will start in January.

As part of his SFI application, Mr White wants to transfer a parcel of land in his CS agreement into the 2023 SFI scheme to give him more flexibility in how the land is managed.

Computer says no

However, despite repeated attempts to transfer the land parcel online, a computer glitch has prevented Mr White from submitting his SFI 2023 application – and he is unsure whether this will be resolved by the end of the year.

“On 13 December, it was somewhat galling to receive an email from the RPA telling me to submit my uncompleted SFI application,” said Mr White. “I then received a text message on 15 December reminding me of the email and asking me to respond to it.”

Mr White had complained to the RPA about his application not being accepted in the first week of November.

“In all cases, correspondence with RPA officers has been helpful and they have tried to be constructive, but it would seem there is something in the IT system which is preventing some applications being accepted,” he added.

He understands several other farmers have been similarly affected.

Confidence eroded further

Martin Lines, chief executive of the Nature Friendly Farming Network, said: “There will be a significant number of farmers who will be affected and will incur additional costs.

“Unfortunately, this has happened when many people take an extended holiday break over Christmas and if you are using an agent to complete your application, you are going to lose out.

“I cannot understand why Defra/the RPA did not communicate this announcement to the industry earlier. We wanted a smooth transition, but this should have been looked at months ago.”

He added: “This will further erode farmer confidence in the RPA and the SFI. As a farmer, you attempted SFI 22, that gets cut and then you cannot do your application for 2023. They are constantly moving the goalposts and stopping applications.”

An RPA spokesman said: “We need to make an update to the service to ensure that it continues to perform well for 2024. This unfortunately will mean that the service will close for new applications between 27 December and 1 January, and unsubmitted applications will be withdrawn from the system on 31 December.

“Therefore we’re encouraging all applicants with unsubmitted applications to either submit their applications before 31 December, or withdraw applications and make sure that they save all of the information that they have inputted so far directly onto their computer so they can restart their application in the new year.”

Pilot farmer’s anguish over SFI computer glitch

Yorkshire arable farmer Phil Rowbottom is also struggling to submit his 2023 SFI application because the IT system will not allow him to add bolt-on modules to his claim.

Mr Rowbottom, who farms 135ha near Wakefield, West Yorkshire, would like to submit a claim for about 100ha in his 2023 SFI application.

He has been a pilot farmer since the inception of the SFI scheme in 2021 and this year was given the option of adding bolt-on modules to his application.

Mr Rowbottom has been attempting to add modules, including integrated pest management, meeting his agronomist, and crop nutrient recommendations to existing basic options on arable soils and hedgerows – but the computer says “no”.

“When I attempt to submit bolt-on modules on the IT system, it won’t let me go past Step 3, which is where you input the area of the field on the farm,” he explained.

“I emailed the RPA with this problem on 14 November. They acknowledged the email, but appear to have done nothing about it.

“The bit that makes my blood boil is they have put in for a four-day week. Like farmers, they should be working seven days a week to resolve these problems.”

He added: “Every time the RPA invents these new computer systems, you just get four to five years of computer problems. It’s just not acceptable.”

 

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