£65m soil scheme missed chance to build national picture

More than £65m was paid to farmers through Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) soil-assessment actions, but the resulting data was not routinely collected, prompting claims the scheme missed an opportunity to build a national soil dataset.

Between 2023 and 2026, 74,617 farm businesses participated in the SFI’s SAM1/CSAM1 soil-assessment actions, covering more than 10.9m hectares.

Farmers were paid to assess their soils, produce soil-management plans and test soil organic matter.

See also: 3 technologies to measure farm soil health and function

But according to a Freedom of Information (FOI) response, the resulting assessments, management plans and organic-matter test results were not routinely collected from farmers.

The Rural Payments Agency instead requested information only on an ad-hoc basis during inspections.

‘Missed opportunity’

The Sustainable Soils Alliance (SSA), which submitted the FOI request, says this was a missed opportunity to turn a major publicly funded farming scheme into a valuable source of national soil information.

“SFI data could have made a significant contribution to this picture, but results collection was never incorporated into the original design,” said SSA director Matthew Orman.

The issue comes as the government works to improve both soil management and the evidence used to measure it.

Under Defra’s 2025 Environmental Improvement Plan, at least 40% of England’s agricultural soil is to be brought into sustainable management by 2028, rising to 60% by 2030.

The plan also commits government to improving the quality, consistency and availability of soil data by 2029 and establishing a soil-health baseline.

Government published its first national soil-health indicators in March 2026, covering areas including soil carbon, run-off risk and sustainable arable crop provision. They are described as interim indicators, with the wider national baseline still under development.

Defra has statutory duties under the Environment Act 2021 to monitor and report on progress towards environmental targets.

However, the Act does not require Defra to collect soil-assessment records from every farm participating in SFI.

Defra’s latest Environmental Improvement Plan progress report says it intends to use uptake of SFI actions as a proxy for sustainable soil management, while the government develops its wider soil baseline.

Defra response

A Defra spokesperson said: “Maintaining healthy soil is vital for Britain’s food security.

“Sustainable Farming Incentive-funded Soil Management Plans empower farmers to understand the condition of their soils, monitor changes over time and make informed management decisions to improve soil health on their land.

“We monitor the outcomes of Environmental Land Management schemes in a number of ways, including sending surveyors to visit sample farms, and using data captured through the Natural Capital and Ecosystem Assessment, which is designed to monitor and map England’s natural assets.”

Elsewhere, steps have been taken to improve England’s soil knowledge with the removal of the paywall from the Soil Maps of England and Wales.

Also, the publication of the first results from the Natural Capital Ecosystem Assessment (NCEA) in England looks to build a comprehensive baseline of England’s soils and natural capital assets.