Unveiling the Controversial Sustainable Farming Scheme in Wales

The Sustainable Farming Scheme, Wales

With the daily routine, namely milking, feeding and bedding down the cattle dominating activity at this time of year, we were at bit of a loss as to what this month's topic for discussion would be. Then we attended one of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) consultation meetings with representatives of the Welsh Minister for Rural Affairs and were presented with a gift for this month's column. The meeting was very well attended, with over 200 people, and that was only the first of three meetings that day. Just to explain the situation, this is the third part of a consultation on how the Welsh Assembly government proposes to support (or not) farmers and farming in Wales post -Basic Payment Scheme, which is to be phased out by 2029, hence the high number of attendees. Anyone reading this who wonders why farmers should get any subsidy should remind themselves that this money is effectively allowing food to leave the farm often below the cost of production, thereby keeping food prices down.

The first part of the presentation was predictable, all about keeping farmers on the land, rewarding farmers for good environmental husbandry, adapting to climate change, resilience of eco-systems and support for cultural resources and the Welsh language. It then became a bit woolly e.g. the animal and health improvement cycle which simply involved having a good working relationship with one's vet and there is to be a 'sanction matrix', whatever that means, coupled with no independent appeal panel should things go awry (which inevitably they will).

Once the presentation was given the barrage of questions began and the responses could only be described as condescending and patronising, causing half the audience to walk out when it became clear that we were not going to get straight answers to straight questions. If this was meant to be a consultation, it was disappointing to see that no record of views expressed by increasingly angry farmers, was being kept...surely the whole point of the exercise.  It was presented more as a fait accompli. The scheme seems to have been drawn up with a 'one-size-fits-all' approach and just underlines how removed from the reality of the agricultural industry the Welsh government is. One of the requirements, or  'Universal Actions', in the proposed scheme is that every farm in Wales plants 10% of its land with trees, regardless of topography . As one farmer pointed out, will we not all be diversifying into firewood production in ten years time? At no point during the entire presentation was food production mentioned, so much for subtitling the scheme 'Keeping Farmers Farming'... the irony is inescapable.

What a pity the Welsh Assembly appears not to have read their own impact assessment of the SFS that they want to foist on us? The conclusion of this report predicts that 20% of farms will go out of business, 5,5000 jobs will go, and £199million will be lost to farm income.  It must make Wales a laughing stock to the wider world that the government funds an impact assessment and then proceeds to fund the disastrous predictions. At the same time, our politicians are queuing up to address farmers' meeting...no doubt because there is an election looming. Even the Prime Minister gave a speech at the National Farmer's Union conference in Birmingham where he ended by saying 'I know you don't do it for the money, you do it for love.' It certainly gives an insight into the mindset of our leaders with regard to farmers.

Following on from the consultation meetings that had been held the length & breadth of Wales, protest meetings were held in Welshpool & Carmarthen and attended by thousands of angry and anxious farmers, culminating in a mass protest outside the Senedd, the Welsh Assembly building, in Cardiff.  One good thing that has come out of this situation is that the First Minister, Mr. Mark Drakeford and the Minister for Rural affairs, Ms. Lesley Griffiths have succeeded in uniting the famers of Wales as never before.  With the First Minister due to retire we must now look to who the next incumbent will be. We can only hope that he will not follow in Mark Drakeford's footsteps touring the Principality in a helicopter and indulging in vanity projects such as funding a £3.6million tree-planting project in Uganda. (Will Uganda contribute to the tree-planting aspirations of the Welsh government?)