Supporting the Farming Industry in Mid Wales

Part of 1. Questions to the Minister for Environment, Energy and Rural Affairs – in the Senedd at 1:57 pm on 13 November 2019.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 1:57, 13 November 2019

Starting with the extra bureaucracy, I have said from the outset that if we introduce extra bureaucracy into a scheme—I think many farmers will tell you that one of the reasons that many of them voted 'leave' in the European elections was because of the bureaucracy surrounding common agricultural policy—then we will have failed. It is absolutely important that we don't increase extra bureaucracy, certainly for the farmers and for ourselves.

The consultation only closed at the end of October. We had well over 3,000 responses, many of them individual responses. They will take a while to work through, but I also meet very regularly with the farming unions. Just last week, I spoke at the NFU Cymru conference and, of course, questions around 'Sustainable Farming and our Land' were raised with me.

You used the word 'stability' in relation to CAP and the basic payments scheme. I would disagree with you—I don't think CAP has provided stability for our farmers. If you think about just last year, when we had a drought, we held a summit at the Royal Welsh Show—they were looking for Welsh Government support because they couldn't cope with the drought. CAP has not made our agriculture sector stable in the way that we would want. What we're seeking to do in 'Sustainable Farming and our Land' is do that.

We've come forward with the idea of the scheme, which I think has been broadly welcomed. Certainly, the responses that I've seen—and I've probably read about 200 of the responses now—very much welcome the change in focus in 'Sustainable Farming and our Land' as to what had gone on in the previous year in 'Brexit and our land'. So, we are now working through the consultation responses. We're working on the co-design of the scheme.

Of course, that bespoke support is going to be very important—that bespoke assessment. No two farms are the same, and it's really important that every farm is visited. But we're not starting from scratch. When an adviser goes out to a farm, there will be a lot of data already there—nutrient management, for instance. So, the bureaucracy, I hope, will be kept to the minimum.