Wales’s farming union highlighted importance of continued SFS collaboration in meeting with Welsh deputy first minister
NFU Cymru stressed the need for continued collaboration between the Welsh government and the farming union on the evolving Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) at a recent meeting with Wales’s deputy first minister Huw Irranca-Davies.
NFU Cymru President Aled Jones said continued collaboration is key to ensure the SFS works for all farming sectors.
Speaking after the meeting held on 17 February, Jones said it had provided a good opportunity to provide the deputy first minister with a summary of the feedback from the recent NFU Cymru Sustainable Farming Scheme Roadshows during which over 1,000 farming businesses were surveyed.
Jones said that while NFU members recognised the progress that had been made since Welsh Government’s Keeping farmers farming consultation, they highlighted a number of key areas that required further work.
“In particular, members highlighted the need for the 10 per cent habitat scheme rule to better reflect the wide diversity of temporary and permanent habitats we have on our farms. They were very clear that hedges and other traditional boundary features must be included within the scheme rule.
“Our members also raised concerns at the potential bureaucracy associated with the Universal Actions, Scheme Rule, Universal Code and Farm Carbon Assessment. We impressed on the deputy first minister the need to consider the cumulative burden of all the requirements of the SFS alongside all the other statutory regulations and requirements farmers must adhere to.”
Jones added that the meeting was also a chance to focus on funding for Welsh farming and an opportunity to thank the deputy first minister for his decision to maintain the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) at current funding levels for 2025, a decision that he said has provided much needed short-term stability and certainty to Welsh farming, along with the thousands of ancillary businesses that rely on farming for so much of their income, at what is a very uncertain time for rural Wales.
“We discussed the importance of a comprehensive economic analysis and impact assessment of the revised proposals to understand what the scheme will mean for farmers and wider society and we impressed on the deputy first minister the importance of the Sustainable Farming Scheme being able to provide at least the same level of stability to farm businesses, our rural communities and the supply chain as the BPS does currently,” he said.
Other issues discussed in the meeting included the UK Government’s Inheritance Tax proposals, the independent review of the Water Quality Regulations, bovine TB and concerns over delays in planning applications in the poultry sector.
In conclusion Jones said: “There is no doubt that this is a time of significant upheaval for Welsh farming, the cumulative burden of a range of policies and regulations is weighing heavily on farming families at this time. I have welcomed the partnership and collaborative approach that the deputy first minister has adopted since his appointment in March last year. It is imperative that this approach to policy design continues as we work through the detail of the SFS to ensure it will work for all sectors, for all farm types and areas of Wales and delivers a scheme that will meet our shared ambitions for food, climate, nature and communities.”
