The Sustainable Farming Scheme

Part of 4. Topical Questions – in the Senedd at 3:41 pm on 6 July 2022.

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Photo of James Evans James Evans Conservative 3:41, 6 July 2022

Minister, it's very pleasing to hear you say you want to keep farmers on the land, and I think that's what we all want to see, and that's what our farming industry wanted to see. In paragraph 2.3.5, it's stated that:

'All farmers should be able to access the Scheme.

'It is important the Scheme works for all types of farms. The Scheme is designed so all farm types can access it, including tenants and those with rights to common land.'

Minister, many tenant farmers are concerned that the good work they're going to do around enhancing the environment could only be to benefit the landowner, or potentially that landowners could evict tenants off their farms to access the scheme's funding themselves. I was asked by a Breconshire young farmer the other day about carbon offsetting, and they were very keen to know will the carbon offsetting go against the active farmer who's doing the work on the farm, or will it actually go against the landowner, say the National Trust, for example. So, Minister, what protections are you going to put in place to protect those tenant farmers and actually make sure that scheme funding goes to the active farmer, and not big conglomerates who do not do any farming at all?