Farmers' fury at online scramble for £233m funding

Thousands of farmers missed out on vital government funding after online applications for a £233m green scheme for the whole of England closed down in under six hours.

Farming and environmental groups condemned the race to secure the sustainable farming incentive (SFI) funding, with some comparing it to a "frantic" online scramble to secure Glastonbury or Oasis gig tickets.

The post-Brexit scheme, which replaced EU subsidies with payments for farmers to look after nature and provide "public goods", opened at 10:00 BST on Tuesday but had run out of budget by 15:48 BST.

The government said farmers had responded "in force" to the scheme and there would be further funding opportunities for 2027.

The National Farmers' Union (NFU) is calling for the government to explain why the scheme opened and closed so quickly, with so many farmers left out of pocket.

It said it wanted "clarity and urgency" from the government and added that it had made "repeated warnings of a lack of sufficient budget".

NFU vice-president 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."

Vicki Hird, agriculture lead at the Wildlife Trusts said "the scramble for green farming schemes was worse than the dash for Oasis tickets".

She added: "The budget has been inadequate for far too long and the Treasury must recognise this and allocate far greater funds to ensure climate resilience in farming in the next budget."

The SFI scheme is vital for many farmers who have turned large swathes of their land over to nature-friendly schemes, such as planting hedges, creating wildflower margins and protecting the soil.

When the scheme was suddenly closed without notice last year, there were concerns that some farmers might turn their backs on environmental work if they could not access the payments and demand for Tuesday's scheme was expected to be high.

The Nature Friendly Farming Network (NFFN), which helps farmers to manage land in environmentally-friendly ways, criticised the "frantic scramble" and said farmers had "faced a desperate race against time" to secure their funding agreements.

Cambridgeshire arable farmer Martin Lines, who leads the NFFN, said: "This entire SFI system, with windows opening and closing within a few hours, isn't fit for purpose.