The Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), part of the government's post-Brexit system of payments rewarding nature-friendly farming practices, was relaunched this year after an overhaul which included a £100,000 cap for individual businesses.

The second application window for SFI2026 opened on Tuesday morning, but closed less than six hours later after its entire £233m budget was allocated on the first day.

Farmers' leaders said the high levels of demand proved the need for more money to be made available for farm environment and resilience measures.

National Farmers' Union (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........

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