Two new digital products have come to market to help consultants and land owners manage environmental schemes such as the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI).
The Farm Consultancy Group (FCG) has recently started using the Regeno Farmwalk app, designed to streamline record-keeping. It allows photos to be captured, along with voice notes and other evidence, automatically linking these to the relevant scheme requirements.
It can also be used to support Welsh and Scottish farming schemes, as well as standards including Red Tractor and LEAF.
“We were getting more and more requests from the Rural Payments Agency asking for field records and evidence to support stewardship claims,” says Steph Emmerson, director at FCG. “Our systems worked, but they were manual and time-consuming. We knew there had to be a more streamlined way of managing that information.”
Additional functionality includes the ability to record and track follow-ups to client meetings. “Previously, I would have a meeting, make notes and then later write up a summary,” Steph explains. “Now I can almost send that summary during the meeting, which saves a lot of time and makes sure nothing gets missed.”
Kimberley Broughton, farm consultant at FCG, says that the system is already helping to reduce the time spent on administration. “Previously, we would collect documents from clients, take photos on the farm and then spend time filing everything back at the laptop,” she says. “It was quite time-consuming, but the app makes the process much quicker and easier to manage.”
As well as supporting environmental schemes, FCG believes that it could have wider applications, with Regeno including modules on health and safety and a Nitrate Vulnerable Zone calculator.
JustFarm launches SFI Planner
JustFarm’s latest digital tool is the SFI Planner, which it believes will help growers manage the revised 2026 scheme. This year, growers will have fewer actions to choose from, including some which have been reduced in value, stricter compatibility rules and a £100,000 cap.
To ensure that growers can recoup the same financial benefit, it is possible to build agreements from a larger number of smaller actions. However, this comes with greater complexity at the planning stage.
The SFI Planner is an interactive agreement builder that allows farmers and agents to plan schemes visually on a map. It will reportedly enable growers to see:
- Which actions actually fit their land
- Automatically filter out ineligible options
- Spot conflicts before mistakes are made
- See estimated payments as they build
- Find the right combination to maximise their income
- Share their plan and collaborate with others working on the farm
It combines more than 40 map-based data layers, each with Defra policy rules, to show exactly what actions will be eligible.
“Farmers shouldn’t need to be policy experts to access scheme income,” said James Stretton, co-founder of JustFarm. “The Planner answers a simple question: what fits my land, and what’s it worth? We handle the complexity so farmers can focus on farming.”
Tommy Neeld, co-founder of JustFarm, added: “Planning SFI agreements manually has become one of the biggest bottlenecks for both farmers and agents. What used to take hours, or even days, can now be done in minutes.”
According to the founders, a key benefit will be the ability to surface actions that growers may not consider. By showing all compatible actions across each parcel of land, income opportunities can be maximised.
Farmers can create a free JustFarm account to get started, with the option to unlock full planning functionality for £195 + VAT.