Farmers have complained of missing out on vital Government funding for sustainable agriculture after online applications for a £233m green scheme closed down in under six hours.

The National Farmers Union (NFU) is calling for clarity and urgency from Defra after the rapid closure of SFI26 Window 2, following the NFU’s repeated warnings of a lack of sufficient budget.

NFU VP Robyn Munt said: “The rapid uptake of the scheme comes as no surprise. We have made the demand clear to Defra for some time. Its closure in less than six hours shows the scale of demand there is from farmers to deliver for the environment and to invest in farm resilience. We have warned Defra for months that the available budget would not meet demand of those farmers wanting to deliver for the environment and sustainable farming.”

Some applicants compared getting funding as similar to trying to get Oasis gig tickets, with a ‘first come, first served’ system dependent on the speed of reaction.

Munt continued: “Yet again, Defra has created a position where there are the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in the sector based purely on the speed of pressing a button. This comes at the same time as the department says it wants a reset with the farming industry. Instead, it has further damaged business confidence that is already at rock bottom.”

The £233m fund is a part of the Government’s pledge to support farmers and land managers to produce food sustainably. The SFI scheme was designed to fill a void for those farmers who had converted land to nature-friendly schemes.

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