NFU Cymru has met with new Cabinet Minister to outline ambitions for Welsh farming

On 20th May, NFU Cymru’s officeholders met with the new Welsh Government Cabinet Minister for Rural Resilience and Sustainability to set out union's priorities and ambitions.

NFU Cymru President Abi Reader and Deputy President Paul Williams met with Cabinet Minister Llyr Gruffydd at Tŷ Hywel in Cardiff Bay, where they discussed common goals within NFU Cymru and Plaid Cymru’s respective manifestos.

The main topics included the need for a comprehensive ‘farm to fork’ National Food Strategy, commitments on future funding for Welsh agriculture, evolution of the Sustainable Farming Scheme and the need for an independent review of regulation. NFU Cymru also stressed the need for the new government to move forward, without delay, on a genuine bovine TB eradication strategy.

Speaking after the meeting, NFU Cymru President Abi Reader said: “We are grateful to Llyr Gruffydd for meeting with us so early into his tenure as Cabinet Minister. This was a hugely constructive meeting where we were able to expand on our vision for the future of Welsh agriculture and identify the areas where the new Welsh Government has set out similar aspirations for Welsh farming and rural Wales in its own manifesto.

“In particular, NFU Cymru has emphasised to the Cabinet Minister the importance of the new Welsh Government delivering a multi-year funding cycle for Welsh agriculture, moving away from the current restrictive - and uncertain - year-to-year payment model, a commitment Plaid Cymru said it would deliver in its First 100 days of Government. We believe there’s a compelling case for an ambitious and growth-focused Welsh Government to increase the wider agricultural budget. Doing so would help ensure farmers can continue providing the wide range of food, environmental, economic, social and cultural benefits they currently deliver for the people and communities of Wales.

“We have also impressed that the new Welsh Government must deliver on its commitment to evolve and refine the Sustainable Farming Scheme to ensure it will work for farmers in all sectors and areas of Wales. Fundamental to the scheme realising its potential in this regard is the maintenance of at least 70% of the scheme budget for the universal layer. This is vital to provide stability to Welsh farming families operating in an increasingly volatile and uncertain world.

“I was also really pleased that we were able to discuss the need for Welsh Government to commission an independent review of the bureaucratic burden on family farms, a further action the party said it would take forward within its First 100 days of Government. Within this review, there’s an urgent need to make changes to the bureaucratic Control of Agricultural Pollution Regulations. For the second consecutive year we’ve seen that the increasingly unpredictable weather patterns we’re facing further reinforce the fact that the farming-by-calendar approach does not work.

“We also stressed the need for the new government to act, without delay, on developing a comprehensive bovine TB eradication strategy, one which deploys the right intervention, in the right way, at the right time. We impressed on the importance of the TB Programme Board being tasked with providing recommendations on the direction of travel, one that gives us hope that we can rid this disease, once and for all, from our countryside.”

To conclude, Abi Reader said: “I firmly believe that there is a fantastic opportunity to further grow the unparalleled contribution that Welsh farming makes to society in Wales. At NFU Cymru we want to work with the new Welsh Government to take forward a comprehensive farm to fork National Food Strategy that will secure the continued supply of safe, high quality and affordable food from Wales at the same time as delivering additional jobs, economic growth and investment to the nation.”