Since March 2023, the government’s climate change plan is for “increasing the adoption of in-field silvoarable agroforestry systems to 10% of all arable land by 2050”.

Land managers eligible for Rural Payments Agency (RPA) support can already apply for a ‘PA4’ payment of £1,268 to help with the costs of producing an ‘Agroforestry Plan’. That plan will then underpin their applications for support from the Environmental Land Management schemes expected to become available later in 2026. All being well, £5.40 per tree will be available to support planting of a woodland tree, and £17.83 for a fruit tree.

Both new sites and the first-movers could then get annual ‘maintenance payments’ under 10-year agreements of up to £849/hectare where tree density is 251-400 trees/ hectare (with less for lower densities).

For context: the annual RPA ‘basic payment’ previously paid to farmers regardless of their farming style has now been almost entirely phased out (having been £232/hectare in 2020). The shift from £232 to £849 is a powerful and welcome support for those now committing to agroforestry.

Find more information on the grants here.

Meanwhile, here in its full glory is the Wakelyns PA4 (so you can see all the detail of where things are and what is planned), currently awaiting approval by the Forestry Commission on behalf of the Rural Payments Agency. Many thanks to Will Simonson (ORC), Paul Jackson (our long-term arborist who leads tree walks at Wakelyns, Jannine Parry and Jon Cousins for all their help with this. And Kinna Moseley at the Forestry Commission, our long-suffering local adviser.

Our agroforestry was planted from 1994 (the before, and the first planting):