1. What is the Cabinet Secretary's vision for the future of agriculture in Wales? OAQ52877

Diolch. Our vision was set out in the 'Brexit and our land' consultation. We want a thriving and resilient agricultural sector, where farmers produce outcomes of huge importance to Wales as a whole. Many of these can only be produced by Welsh farmers on Welsh land.

Thank you for that response. The agricultural sector is one of the key pillars of the Welsh language here in Wales, and you will be aware of the Government's responsibilities in light of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, where cultural and linguistic considerations are to be equally balanced with economic, environmental and social considerations. With that in mind, and being aware of the response from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg, from Cytûn—Churches Together in Wales, from the Welsh Local Government Association rural forum, and the concerns expressed by some on the impact that the recommendations within 'Brexit and our land' will have on the Welsh language, will you confirm that the Government will carry out a thorough assessment of the linguistic impact of any changes that you will introduce and that, if the impact assessment shows that there will be damage to the future of the Welsh language, the Government will change course?

Thank you. We certainly will carry out an impact assessment in relation to the Welsh language, probably over the next few months before we introduce the White Paper. The Welsh language is probably used more by the agricultural sector than any other sector in Wales, and I think one of the best ways of preserving the language is to keep farmers farming on our land. 

One of the resilience issues that have been exposed by the whole discussions about what can happen as a result of Brexit is the shortage of fruit and vegetables grown in this country. Obviously, this is an important issue both for the well-being of all of us, but particularly for our ability to supply our schools, our hospitals and other public services with fresh produce. So, I just wondered what your plans were for ensuring that we have sufficient supplies of vegetables and fruit, which have been rather undermined over the last 20, 30 years.

Thank you. I should have probably mentioned in my opening answer to Llyr that we've had 12,000 responses to 'Brexit and our land'. So, we are currently analysing the responses and we'll have a more detailed consultation again in the spring, and, obviously, it will determine our policy. But I think there is a real opportunity around fruit and vegetable production, probably for the first time. We'll be able to look at schemes that can increase market potential, that can drive improvements in productivity, diversification. So, I think it's an area where we'll certainly want to support farmers to be able to diversify into areas such as horticulture or agroforestry.