North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Welsh Government to provide a stability mechanism within its future agricultural policy to help farmers in planning for their investment in the future, given the uncertain climate ahead.
Questioning the Cabinet Secretary for Energy, Planning and Rural Affairs in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood expressed concern at the absence of a stability mechanism within future agricultural policy in the Welsh Government’s ‘Brexit and Our Land’ Consultation and asked her to respond to NFU Cymru calls for this to be rectified.
He said:
“In August I joined the National Trust, the RSPB and a farmer on a National Trust farm, and they told me that a new sustainable land management scheme is needed that's fair to farmers, provides food, manages diversity and protects nature and the environment. During the recess last week I had a meeting with NFU Cymru Clwyd County Chair and their County Adviser. They told me that within your proposals, the missing ingredient was the need for a stability mechanism to futureproof agriculture policy if we are to ensure a continued supply of quality, affordable food alongside public goods, because of the economic resilience that the two together can provide.
“How do you respond to their call for that missing ingredient, for a stability mechanism within that, to help them now in planning for their investment in the future, given the uncertainty ahead, but also recognising that the whole principle behind agricultural support, going back to the 1940s, was recognition that, on occasions when the rain does fall, when the international disasters occur, or even conflict arises, we're going to need them again and we can't afford to lose them in the interim.”
Responding, the Cabinet Secretary, Lesley Griffiths AM, said:
I think you've raised a very important point around stability, and certainly I've had discussions with farmers over the last couple of years around volatility. Clearly, this year, with the weather, we've absolutely seen that to the full. We had that very long, wet winter, we had heavy snow in the spring, and then we had the very dry and hot summer. I don't want to presume anything, because, as I say, we're analysing the responses to the consultation at the moment, but certainly the common agricultural policy has not provided the stability and the protection against that volatility that I think farmers want to see. And I think it's very important that, when we bring forward our Welsh agricultural policy, we do that.”