SFI Moorland Assessment (MOR1) opens - common land farmers urged to apply

Common land farmers, commons associations and those managing common land are being urged to apply for SFI Moorland Assessment by the Foundation for Common Land (FCL).

Robin Milton, FCL’s Upland Policy Lead, an Exmoor hill farmer and Deputy Chair of the Uplands Alliance, said: “It is vital that commons seize this opportunity to take the first steps in the transition to the new SFI/CS agreements. The sooner applications are made, the sooner payments can start. Collecting and recording your own data will allow longer term ownership of management direction. So do your pre application work, express an interest to RPA and engage as soon as possible or the money available will be lost to your common as will the opportunity to start building a seamless transition to SFI and CS agreements.”

The key detail for farmers is outlined by FCL’s Tom Lawrence, their SFI Moorland Digital Tool co-ordinator, who said: “SFI Moorland Assessment applications are now open. There is a new bespoke off line system that will be handled by a commons specific RPA team. A beta trial tested this system and three commons now have live agreements. They have already received the first of their quarterly payments. We thank the RPA for their willingness to listen to feedback from both FCL and the users in the trial.

“Through this trial several changes were made. The most important being that you no longer require SSSI consent for the SFI Moorland Assessment on Common Land. This means agreements can be turned around much faster,” he added.

FCL understands applications will be managed by a controlled rollout. Common land associations that have already expressed an interest in participating in SFI23 to the RPA will be contacted systematically and be invited to apply. FCL is keen for anyone who not already expressed an interest, to do so. Those that are in SFI22 will be contacted directly by the RPA.

Tom Lawrence, added: “The most recent update from the Defra farming blog says the payment rate of M0R1 is now £10.60 per ha with an extra £7.00 per ha for common land. In addition, there is a management payment of £20 per ha up to 50 ha and a further £272 per agreement.

“FCL has also learned, after speaking to the RPA, that getting a SFI agreement now will not affect your ability to get an agreement when the combined ELM offers are released in the summer. You will be able to get a new stackable agreement on your land when the offers are released instead of waiting till your annual upgrade point. This means there is no need to delay.”

With applications open at last, the FCL hopes a digital surveying tool they have developed will help. They say, approximately 27,500 ha of moorland has already been successfully surveyed using this tool. This tool has been used primarily by farmers and has proved an effective and useful method compared to the alternatives.

For help and advice head to the Foundation for Common Land’s website. There is a toolkit including templates to help applicants get started as well as links to YouTube webinars on this topic and SFI in general.

Anyone wanting more information can contact Tom Lawrence at sfi@foundationforcommonland.org.uk