The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), the first of three new environmental schemes being introduced post-Brexit, opens for applications next week.
The SFI is intended to financially reward actions beneficial to the environment, against a backdrop of helping the industry achieve green targets coupled with reductions in direct payments.
Farmers will be paid to provide public goods such as improved water quality, biodiversity, climate change mitigation and animal health and welfare.
For this year, the agri-environmental scheme, opening for farmers in England only, includes three standards, each with different levels and payments.
It opens on 30 June for applications and there is no deadline to apply, Defra Secretary George Eustice confirmed at the recent Groundswell event, in Hertfordshire.
He said: "We’re about to launch the Sustainable Farming Incentive in a few days’ time, on 30 June.
"We are trying really hard to make sure that we keep those principles of simplicity and that space for things to be done differently.
"There is no application window, there’s no deadline. You can enrol any time you like. It opens next week, but if you’re too busy at the moment, and you’d rather wait until August, do it then.
"If that’s still too busy and you want to wait until the winter, you can join then, you can join any time of the year. And it’s a rolling window, it never closes."
For the arable and horticultural soils standard, farmers will be paid between £22 and £40 per hectare, depending on the activity level.
The introductory level includes testing of soil organic matter and 70% or more of land covered with green cover over the winter, while the intermediate level includes activities such as 70% or more of land covered with multi-species green cover.
For the improved grassland soils standard, farmers will be paid between £28 and £58 per hectare, also depending on the activity level.
The introductory level includes activity such as producing a soil management plan, while the intermediate level includes herbal leys on at least 15% of land.
Finally, farmers will be paid £10.30 per hectare for the introductory moorland standard, or £265 per agreement for the additional payment.
Mr Eustice said: "When you join you can expect your first payment in three months, and then you’ll get a regular quarterly payment thereafter. No more racing to get forms in in time for a deadline.
"No more fretting that the cheque hasn’t arrived on a particular date. A regular cash flow coming in to reflect those costs."
Under the government's agricultural transition plan, the other two schemes to launch are Local Nature Recovery and Landscape Recovery.
