The Sustainable Farming Scheme

Part of 2. Questions to the Minister for Rural Affairs, North Wales and Trefnydd – in the Senedd at 2:36 pm on 26 October 2022.

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Photo of Lesley Griffiths Lesley Griffiths Labour 2:36, 26 October 2022

Yes, I am, but I will point out that we're still looking at designing the sustainable farming scheme. The survey is still open until 21 November, so please do encourage all of your colleagues to make sure that they complete the survey and let us hear their views. I've said all along that if it doesn't work for tenant farmers, it won't work for anybody, because they are just as important as land farmers, as you say; they make up a third of our land here in Wales, so it's really important. And I've been very, very clear the scheme must work for them.

You mentioned young farmers in particular, and the reason that we're bringing forward the support in a different way to how it was when we were in the European Union is because we know that our next generation of farmers are going to be farming in a very much tougher climates and conditions than we are now. But I do want to continue to work with tenant farmers—I want to make that very clear. And you will have heard me say in an earlier answer to one of our colleagues that we have got the tenancy working group, specifically to look at how the actions—. So, you'll be aware of the pyramid of actions that we have in the sustainable farming scheme. It's really important that all actions work for tenant farmers, just in the same way as those who own the land.