Farmers’ Union of Wales members from across Wales have voiced extreme anger at the new Habitat Wales scheme after calculations revealed massive falls in compensatory payments they would receive for undertaking environmental work, and having encountered major flaws and inaccuracies in the farm maps published last week.
FUW President Ian Rickman said: “FUW staff and officials have spoken to members from across Wales in meetings and during the process of assisting members with their applications, and there is real anger about this scheme.
“The scheme was foisted upon the industry at the 11th hour as a done deal, and while a small number of improvements have been made in response to FUW calls, it has certainly not been developed in cooperation with the farming industry as it should have been.
“The FUW has been clear in its warnings regarding the scheme since it was announced as the replacement for Glastir in July, and these warnings have come true.”
The Union President also emphasised the FUW’s concern that there is still no clarity on the scheme budget and that the payment rates are significantly below what farmers would have received under the Glastir schemes.
“Many of our members are telling me that they are not going to enter the scheme because the income foregone and costs incurred payment rates fall well below their true value, meaning it is financially unworkable and not manageable in the real world.
“Some members have been in agri environment schemes for up to 30 years yet they’re not going to apply because the rates are lower than they were decades ago. Surely that goes against what should be the Welsh Government’s objectives for a habitat scheme?”
Mr Rickman said the FUW has always been happy and willing to work with the Welsh Government when it comes to designing Wales specific policies and that the decision to design the scheme in isolation without union input and announce it as a finished article just weeks before launching it demonstrated the dangers of not listening to the industry.
“Our staff have been trained and are there to help members but even with the added support provided by the FUW the barriers to entry in this scheme coupled with the much reduced compensatory payments for undertaking actions deemed to be beneficial to the environment means that the scheme is not workable or affordable for many of our members.
“The Minister must therefore urgently review this scheme as it will fail thousands of farmers in its current form.”
Mr Rickman also warned that lessons must be learnt in terms of the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) due to be launched next year.
“Many of the aspirations of the SFS are objected to by the FUW, while others we support. But either way, the scheme has to be practical and workable from the outset, including in terms of the application stage.
“Given that this scheme is a fraction as complicated as the current SFS proposals, lessons have to be learnt, and the SFS proposals must continue to be designed with these in mind if we are to avoid far greater problems next year.
“The Welsh farming unions have jointly proposed what we believe is a workable scheme that can be delivered over a transition period in a way that would avoid such problems, and the SFS proposals need to be developed with this in mind,” added Mr Rickman.