If Wales is to achieve nature recovery and climate targets, Welsh Government need as many farmers as possible to join the SFS.
While worthwhile overall, it has been clear from the outset of SFS that it would have limited benefit for Welsh rivers.
Both the implementation of recommendations made in Dr Bolton’s review of the agricultural regulations and the new Environmental Bill have far greater potential for improving Welsh rivers than SFS.
Thursday 17th July, 2025
The final version of Welsh Government’s Sustainable Farming Scheme was announced by the Deputy First Minister on Wednesday.
Starting on January 1st next year, the SFS will replace the Basic Payments Scheme (BPS) for farm subsidies in Wales over the next three years. According to the Deputy First Minister, SFS will…
“….support farmers in Wales to produce world class, high-quality, food whilst caring for the environment, tackling and adapting to climate change and building resilience for those who will work and care for this precious land in the years to come.”
To reach Wales’s biodiversity, climate and nature recovery targets, Welsh Government needs as many farmers as possible to join the new scheme. The phased approach may encourage more to partake, but that still does not guarantee attainment of these wider environmental commitments, which could be threatened further by the delay of a scheme that was originally meant to start this year.
Reaction to SFS
Environmental organisations have raised concerns about the SFS not going far enough and that it will fail to resolve Wales’s climate and nature crises.
In Wednesday’s Senedd debate (Item 4), all sides generally accepted that the SFS was better now than in its previous incarnations.
But concerns were also expressed about its complexity and with just a one-year commitment to funding levels, the lack of certainty it left farmers with and the limited extent to which it allowed them to plan for the future.
It must be pointed out, however, that farming is not the only sector to face uncertainty and difficulties in forward business planning. And that the lack of commitment to longer term funding levels is in the hands of Westminster, not Cardiff.
Will SFS help rivers?
While the full details of the scheme still need to be considered, it has been clear from the outset that the SFS would only offer limited benefit to rivers in Wales.
However, it was encouraging to see a late but sensible additional measure to restrict maize planting on sloping fields. This is an extremely damaging land use practice for rivers, resulting in excessive soil loss with all the additional ‘nasties’ that come with it – nutrients, pesticides, herbicides and other pollutants.
Also welcome is the improved thinking on tree and hedgerow planting on farms in Wales, which will reduce runoff, improve soil health and enhance river corridors, providing benefits to both farming and environment.
The value of this work was acknowledged recently in a Senedd evidence session by NFU Cymru’s Deputy President, Abi Reader, who had received assistance on her farm from South East Wales Rivers Trust.
It is encouraging to see that further support will be given to tenant farmers across Wales, many of whom would like to support these measures but have struggled to access previous schemes. Further development of the collaborative funding within SFS will enable them to work proactively with Welsh Government and their landlords to make necessary change. Further clarity on the optional and collaborative layers of SFS is required from Welsh Government, and the funding to underpin them.
That said, the SFS (like the BPS before it) is a voluntary scheme and will not therefore change practices on all farms in Wales. Doubts remain as to whether SFS will be taken up by the big dairy farms who are a major use of maize as a fodder crop, especially in West Wales, and in some cases the cause of some of the most serious agricultural pollution incidents.
While some support to slurry storage infrastructure is now included within SFS, concerns also remain as to the scale of funding available in this area, given the extent of non-compliance reported by Natural Resources Wales. There is also a question as to whether the scheme should be funding a regulatory requirement in the first place.
What might fix rivers?
If the SFS is not the answer, the biggest lingering question is how changes needed for ailing Welsh rivers will be made at the scale and pace required.
Welsh Government’s adoption of all the recommendations made by Dr Bolton’s review of the control of agricultural pollution regulations earlier this year will have far greater impact for them than SFS.
So too should the upcoming Environmental Bill that was introduced to the Senedd last month.