The Welsh government has announced that its new Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) will receive over £1 billion in funding over the current Senedd term, with a fixed annual budget aimed at giving farmers greater certainty. The multi-year commitment fulfils one of Plaid Cymru's first 100-days pledges, though the £340m annual figure is broadly unchanged from levels farms have received since 2012, falling short of the roughly £500m a year that farming and environmental groups had called for. The SFS, introduced earlier this year after nearly a decade of development, has proved contentious, sparking farmer protests as it replaced pre-Brexit, land-based subsidies with greener payments tied to environmental conditions, including managing at least 10% of land as habitat.

Under the plan, £340m a year will be committed to the SFS until March 2030, coinciding with the next Senedd election, with £238m earmarked for the scheme's baseline "universal layer" payment and a further £102m for optional, more ambitious environmental work. About half of farmers applying for subsidies this year opted into the SFS, covering 905,545 hectares, while the rest remain on the legacy scheme, covering 384,399 hectares, and face a 40% funding cut as the old subsidies are phased out. Farming leaders, including NFU Cymru and the Farmers' Union of Wales, welcomed the funding certainty but said they would have preferred a longer commitment and a higher budget, while some farmers at the Royal Welsh Show said rising costs meant the money would not stretch far.