The Soil Association has slammed the government’s decision to halt the Sustainable Farming Incentives (SFI), warning that it threatens the viability of the organic sector and supply of sustainable British food. 

The decision was announced without warning earlier this week, and comes only weeks after the government urged farmers wanting to go organic should use options within the new Sustainable Farming Incentives. 

For decades support has been available for farmers going through the two-year conversion period to organic because of the many benefits that organic production offers to the environment – including during conversion when they must farm to full organic standards but cannot market their products as organic.  

But now these options have been frozen, with no assurances currently available for those wanting to convert to organic. This follows new data just released by Soil Association Certification, which saw its land in conversion double in 2024, alongside the 13th consecutive year of growth in the organic market. 

Responding, Soil Association chief executive Helen Browning said: “This damaging move by government seriously risks the viability of the organic sector and threatens the supply of sustainable British food. It has frozen farmers out of the opportunity to meet the rising demand for organic food, which will instead continue to be met by imports. The government is disregarding what shoppers and farmers want, alongside the need to protect nature. This is a new low for sustainable food production in England, which will fall even further behind Scotland and other countries where there are targets to increase organic production.

“We are also very worried that smaller producers and family farms, particularly fruit and veg growers, have not had enough opportunity to access the scheme and that they will be most impacted by this sudden change.” 

In this wake of this announcement, the Soil Association is calling for: 

• Payments for organic conversion and maintenance to be retained.

• Farmers who started but had not yet finished their SFI applications to have those honoured.

• Priority to be given to smaller producers – who need them most.

Payments for agroforestry, which had only just become available, to be retained.