SFI Actions for Soil Health

What is soil health?

Soil health is defined as the ability of the soil to function as a living ecosystem to sustain plants, animals and humans on the earth.

The five main measures of soil health are its structure, chemistry, organic matter content, biology, and its ability to retain water.

A healthy soil is one that scores highly on all of these traits, enabling you to optimise plant health, yield and quality. As a result, it also optimises return for the farmer.

Unhealthy soil will score badly on at least one of these measures, meaning crop yield and health will suffer, soil biodiversity will decline, inhibiting its ability to function as a living ecosystem, and you will see less of a return on your farm.

Healthy soil is also better equipped to handle extremes in temperature and excessive rainfall and so reduces the impact of extreme weather – which have become more common over the last few years – on crop development.

Making the most of soil health, therefore, is about investing in your greatest asset – soil – as well as the product you produce, and ultimately, your business.

In times of ongoing change and uncertainty in farming, who doesn’t want to do that?

But improving soil health doesn’t just benefit your business, it has significant environmental benefits, too.

With a greater emphasis being placed on climate change and carbon capture, increasing the quality of our soils is now regarded as one of the most potent weapons in the fight against climate change and reversing biodiversity decline, while tackling pressing issues around food security.

In fact, it has been estimated that soils across the UK currently hold in the region of 9.8bn tonnes of carbon, which amounts to just half of soil’s carbon-storing potential.

This means the by increasing soil organic matter – a key component in increasing soil health – we can sequester millions of tonnes of atmospheric carbon which is currently causing climate change.

It’s a win-win. What is great for your farm is also great for the environment, which is why focusing on improving soil health pays dividends.

The importance of soil management for sustainable agriculture

How does all of that translate to being the driving force for creating a robust and sustainable agriculture industry for generations to come?

If you think you wouldn’t build a house without getting the foundations right first – well it is safe to say that this theory works along the same principle.

No matter what type of crop, plant or flower you want to grow – or the quality of the seed you choose to sow – if the ground you are putting it into is not optimum, then neither will be the end product.

Research has previously shown that something like four million hectares of soil are at risk of compaction, more than two million hectares of soil are at risk of erosion and a programme of intensive agriculture has caused arable soils to lose up to about 60 per cent of their organic carbon.

Poor soils cost the UK more than £3.2bn each year and on a global level that figure could be as high as $10tn.

Soil management plans are a useful tool to integrate into the working practice of your farm as they allow you to set out the steps to take to manage soils.

Having a soil management plan will have benefits for all types of land and soil properties but they are especially important for land that is at risk of runoff and soil erosion; land that is at risk of losing soil carbon or releasing greenhouse gases; land that is connected to water bodies and watercourses; and land that has historic features with a view to protecting them from damage.

You can create a soil management plan to cover your whole farm. There is no bad time of year to do this and the benefits are numerous, but they are best done before a cropping or grazing season.

From an environment perspective, a solid soil management plan can reduce water pollution, greenhouse gases emissions from the soil, improve biodiversity in habitats that receive runoff and the protect historic features.

However, while the need to create a healthier environment goes without saying, the benefits that a soil management plan can bring to your business are just as plentiful.

These include better ground conditions for field operations, and, as you improve soil structure, less soil compaction so more water can get into it, reducing drought stress on your crop.

Financial benefits include reduced use of fertiliser as you do not need to replace nutrients and organic matter lost through runoff, less pesticide use as you get more natural predators of pests and diseases, using less seed as less will be washed away through runoff and using less fuel because you don’t need to work as much in the field.

Sustainable Farming Incentive soil standards

Given the impact that healthy soils can have and how important that is as a starting point for successful and profitable farming, it is unsurprising then that there are specific schemes under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) payments for soil standards.

The 2023 SFI actions for soils are focused on improving soil health, structure, organic matter and biology. They include:

• SAM1: Assess soil, produce a soil management plan and test soil organic matter
• SAM2: Multi-species winter cover crops
• SAM3: Herbal leys

For SAM1, the payment is £6 per hectare and £97 per SFI agreement per year and the aim of this is that you will understand the condition of your soil and effectively plan how to increase the long-term health, productivity and resilience of your soil.

To meet the conditions for SAM1 you need to assess the soil for all the land areas entered and produce a written soil management plan for those land areas. You also need to test the soil organic matter (SOM) on these land.

However, if you had a soil management plan written in the last 12 months, informed by a soil assessment, you can use that to meet this action and existing SOM test results no more than five years old will also meet this action.

For SAM2, the payment is £129 per hectare per year, and the idea is that there’s a well-established multi-species cover crop over the winter months in order to protect soil surface and to have a root growth that benefits soil structure and biology minimises loss of nutrients and reduces soil erosion and runoff.

To meet the multi-species cover crop requirement you must sow a mix containing at least two species from one or more of the brassicae, legumes, grass or cereals and herbs plant families and you are allowed to choose any mix that works for your farm.

With this though, the multi-species cover crop must be established early enough to meet this action’s aim and you must not mechanically apply fertilisers or manures on the areas, but they can be grazed.

You will be paid £382 per hectare, per year for meeting the conditions of SAM3 which looks to improve and maintain the soil’s structure, carbon, biology and fertility.

This action is rotational but there are a few more restrictions with this one.

Although the 2024 soil health SFI actions are essentially the same as the 2023 versions, there have been some minor rule changes. Fundamentally, however, CSAM1,2, and 3 pay the same rates as SAM1, 2, and 3, for the same activity.

However, actions in relation to soil organic matter were added in 2024, which include:

• SOH1 – No-till farming
• SON2 – Multi-species, spring sown cover crop
• SOH3 – Multi-species, summer sown cover crop
• SOH4 – Multi-species, winter sown cover crop

SOH1 attracts a payment of £73 per hectare and lasts for a duration of three years. SOH2 and 3 are worth £163 per hectare and last three years, and SOH4 attracts a payment of £203 per hectare and also last three years.

You can’t enter any area within a land parcel into this action that is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI), because herbal leys are not appropriate for these settings and can cause significant damage.

You also can’t enter an area that contains certain historic or archaeological features and neither can you enter any area of land into this action that has peaty soil because this action could damage peat.

Summary

The face of farming has changed in so many ways over time. Whether that be due to the development of farming machinery and technology, climate change, consumer demands, government laws and legislation and a myriad of other factors.

One thing has remained constant though, and that is that the quality and success of food and crop production is very much determined by soil health. With the introduction of new payment schemes for farmers, such as SFI, having specific incentives for soil health and need to increase food security in the UK, the issue has never been more relevant.