Farmers fear SFS fixes will come too late

NFU Cymru has warned that crucial changes to the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) risk coming too late for farmers facing further cuts to support payments.

Speaking at the union’s annual conference on Thursday (5 November) in Llandrindod Wells, Powys, president Abi Reader welcomed the Welsh government’s commitment to refine the scheme but expressed frustration at the lack of progress on longstanding concerns.

See also: Welsh government urged to rethink BPS cuts

She called for urgent changes to habitat requirements, hedgerow management and record-keeping obligations to make the scheme accessible to more farming businesses.

“I am really nervous that this is going to go right down to the wire, and I do feel that that is unnecessary,” she told Farmers Weekly.

“I think we’ve given sufficient feedback, really, from that deadline back in May, as to where these pinchpoints were.”

Ms Reader said the union had already presented solutions and that responsibility now rested with cabinet minister for rural resilience and sustainability Llyr Gruffydd to deliver meaningful changes.

Lost nature aspirations

Her concerns were echoed by Ceredigion dairy farmer Martin Griffiths, who questioned whether the scheme could deliver its environmental ambitions while excluding farms without sufficient existing habitat.

He warned that farmers unable to meet the requirements faced a 60% reduction in Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) support next year, while temporary habitat options involved sacrificing productive land under prescriptive management conditions.

“While others have aspirations for nature and habitat, if a proportion of farms don’t engage the opportunity to deliver those aspirations will be lost,” he said.

Mr Gruffydd acknowledged the difficulties and confirmed that further proposals would be presented to the SFS roundtable within weeks.

“If it doesn’t work for farmers, then farmers will not come on this journey, and nature loses as well,” he said.

Cabinet minister Llyr Gruffydd and NFU Cymru president Abi Reader © MAG/Anne Dunn

Underspend concerns

The minister confirmed that more than 8,000 businesses, representing approximately half of claimants, had entered the SFS Universal layer this year.

However, questions remain over financial support for those unable to join, particularly as BPS payments continue to be phased out.

BPS payments were cut to 60% of their 2025 value this year as Wales began its transition to the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS), and are due to fall to 40% in 2027 and 20% in 2028, before ending completely in 2029.

Asked by Farmers Weekly what safeguards would protect excluded farmers and how money no longer spent on BPS would be redistributed, Mr Gruffydd acknowledged that an underspend was likely.

“I am expecting an element to underspend, and I am hoping that we can utilise that in a positive way,” he said.

“The question is how much, and the question is how, and those are things that we are considering.”

Ms Reader warned that pressure on the wider Welsh government budget raised concerns that unspent agricultural funding could be diverted elsewhere.

She urged ministers to ensure the money reached farming businesses rather than remaining in government coffers.

“It’s a pot that is dedicated to agriculture. The simplest thing is to get it out of the coffers onto the farm as swiftly as possible.”