A strong reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) could secure the UK significant research and development funding for fresh produce, according to the National Farmers’ Union (NFU).
In launching the NFU’s policy paper on the future of the CAP after its reform in 2013 in Brussels on Tuesday, NFU president Peter Kendall described how the policy needs to continue steering farmers towards the market, while providing support to help them deal with the shocks posed by volatility.
NFU head of economics and international affairs Tom Hind told freshinfo that current R&D programmes are not focused enough on production and that the farming body’s CAP manifesto aims to focus much more on production research.
He said: “There is a convincing case for how you can combine forces at EU level through the CAP. We already have options to share innovation and hopefully can increase these.”
Hind also said the manifesto looked to ensure farmers are being subsidised to be profitable food producers and not “glorified park keepers” due to increasing environmental requirements.
Speaking at the launch event in Belgium, Kendall said: “Agriculture is central to many of the challenges faced by the EU, from improving the security of energy supply to tackling climate change but above all, we need a policy to ensure that consumers in the EU and beyond have a secure and sustainable supply of food produced to high standards.
“As farmers, we would all like to get to a place where we can be much less reliant on CAP support but to achieve this requires a number of conditions to be met. Until then, a strong CAP remains essential.
“We want a policy that does what it says on the tin - that is focused on farmers and farming activity, that is common in its funding and mechanisms and that is a policy determined at EU level. However, we believe that the CAP must evolve after 2013.”
The NFU’s manifesto focuses on maintaining productive capacity in Europe; providing a buffer against the threat posed to farmers by volatile markets; supporting efforts by farmers to become more competitive; and providing incentives to improve environmental performance
The body also fears renationalisation as countries begin to believe they may be better opting out of the CAP, which faces “massive political and financial pressure” ahead of its reform, as it gives countries “excess flexibility”.
Kendall added: “Above all, however, the key challenge for the next reform is to start to address the functioning of the market, to make it fairer and more balanced so that farmers stand a much better chance of making profitable returns. Until then, direct support payments to farmers will remain a crucial component of the policy, helping farmers to deal with market shocks as well as supporting them in meeting the higher standards of production that are expected of European farmers. We do accept, however, that historical references cannot be justified after 2013."
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