CS encompasses a range of grants to encourage farmers to deliver a better environment. CS is being replaced by the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), which is part of the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme.
But Defra wants farmers to use CS rather than wait for the full rollout of SFI.
“Signing up to a CS agreement now will put you in the best possible position to join future schemes. It will also give you a viable, long-term source of income for providing environmental benefits as the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments are reduced.
All new CS agreement holders will be able to terminate the agreement early without penalty (at agreed points) provided any new agreement delivers equivalent or greater levels of environmental outcomes.
Anyone with a CS agreement will be able to apply for SFI actions so long as we are not paying for the same action twice.”
CS / SFI Calculator
A simple calculator can be found in the tools section.
Payments for upland farmer
Defra has also provided a helpful booklet to explain the specific payments for upland farmers
Countryside Stewardship: get funding to protect and improve the land you manage
For full guidance on Countryside Stewardship grants