LAST week we enjoyed a successful Winter Fair and caught up with members, insurance customers, friends and family, writes FUW president Glyn Roberts. 

We also met with many of our elected representatives from Cardiff and Westminster, all whilst enjoying a cuppa and mince pie at our stand. 

A key item of discussion with many of you was of course the Sustainable Farming Scheme proposals.

In our conversations with politicians and members, we made it clear that we recognised that significant progress has been made but that some major concerns and obstacles remain.

Our members have welcomed the overall SFS framework proposed by the Welsh Government based on the principle of a ‘baseline payment’ for all farmers undertaking ‘Universal Actions’ which is not dissimilar to providing a ‘stability payment’ as lobbied for by the FUW for years, with additional revenue streams for ‘Optional and Collaborative Actions’.

Existing RPW Online data being better utilised and new data being collected through self-monitoring and new technology was also something that our members broadly welcomed, in order to minimise the need for advisers or complex and resource thirsty contracts which would dilute the agricultural budget.

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As were the design principles of the scheme which aim to ‘keep farmers on the land’ and recognise that ‘food production is vital for our nation’.

However, on behalf of our members we raised a broad range of concerns regarding the scheme details, most notably the feasibility for large numbers to meet the 10 per cent woodland and 10 per cent habitat thresholds.

This would be in addition to a hypocritically raised regulatory baseline for Welsh farmers through the introduction of National Minimum Standards at a time of increased quotas of imports produced to far lower environmental standards.

Recent years have highlighted how susceptible UK supply chains are to global emergencies in an incredibly unstable world.

Farmers in Wales are also facing severe pressures with ‘agflation’ reaching  23.5 per cent per annum in July.

We therefore welcome the Welsh Government’s positive response to the union’s warnings in previous consultation responses by committing to this baseline payment to provide vital stability.

It is now important that the majority of the budget is allocated to the baseline payment and for the scheme to be a success, the Universal Actions must be practical and possible for the overwhelming majority of farms, including tenants and commoners. 

Whilst the provision of a significant baseline payment was members’ key concern, the requirement for farmers to ‘have at least 10 per cent tree cover on their farm’ was seen by many as being the most challenging ‘Universal Action’ requirement, whilst being completely impractical or impossible for many farms.

As we speed towards the Christmas break as an organisation, I’d like to reassure members that their voices are being heard.

We take your feedback on agricultural policies right back to our elected politicians in Cardiff and Westminster and look forward to hearing from all our members as we go forward in developing our responses to future proposals.