Public needs to recognise and value what farmers do
During the NFU Cymru seminar on Brexit, Andrew Slade, the Welsh Government Director of Agriculture and Food outlined the Welsh government’s objectives in six key areas. The first is to achieve a trade deal that works for Wales; the second was to have a policy on labour migration that meets the needs of both farming and the food chain; the third point was that no one voted in the referendum to be less well off; fourthly – he spoke of the constitution. He said the UK will need a way of working to encompass all four nations – in the future policies must not be forced on Wales.
His next point was on Protection - not to sweep away our qualities and values, old heritages and cultures - employment, it requires a sensible system,
His sixth point was a dire warning: “We cannot come to a juddering halt.” There must be time to allow sectors to adjust and he was adamant a cliff-edge situation is not acceptable.
“It would be madness to reduce our standards if we want to continue exporting,” he said and on the possibilities of global trading, he explained the EU has 57 trade deals in place and there is what he called “a need to piggy back on those deals.”
But he warned of complications, of different trade flows and non-tariff barriers and cited the complications relating to the Irish border, an issue which is exciting French farmers.
Dylan Morgan, the Welsh union’s head of policy, said there will be changes in government policy, but there will still be a need for government financial support. He said the industry will need to invest and innovate to meet the challenges.
Support should be restricted to ‘active farmers’ and a transitional period is needed until a new trading relationship is established.
During the seminar on Productive Agriculture and the Environment there was much talk of the shifting payments away from Pillar 1 of the CAP to an emphasis on environmental payments and rewarding farmers for providing the so called public goods.
Rachel Lewis-Davies, NFU Cymru’s National Environmental and Land Use adviser spoke about recompensing farmers for what they do to preserve precious species and habitats and posed some pertinent questions. How are ‘public goods’ valued, who pays and can markets for those attributes really be developed?
The public needs to recognise and value the cost of the full range of goods and services provided by farmers alongside their role as food producers.
