Minister faces parliamentary criticism over rushed Sustainable Farming Incentive rollout
MPs criticised Farming Minister Stephen Morgan for not pausing the Sustainable Farming Incentive after the £253 million scheme filled in under six hours, leaving thousands of farmers without funding.
During a session of the Environment (Efra) Committee, Farming Minister Stephen Morgan was grilled over the Sustainable Farming Incentive scheme that allocated £253 million for public-goods farming practices but closed in less than six hours, causing roughly 10,000 farmers to miss out. Defra’s farming director Mike Rowe confirmed that 20,000 agreements were set to expire while only 12,200 applications succeeded, attributing the surge to an unexpected demand spike.
Morgan explained that the main application date was published only three weeks earlier and the 10 am opening time was withheld for technical testing, leading to criticism that the process resembled a “shambles”. The National Farmers’ Union described the allocation as being decided by “the speed of pressing a button”, and a farmer reportedly left a funeral to try to apply. Morgan said he intends to learn from the episode and move away from first-come-first-served methods, while MPs argued Defra should have paused the scheme given the evident problems.
Why it matters
The incident exposes weaknesses in a major agricultural funding program that could impact food production and rural economies.
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