Plans for helping solve Wales' mobile broadband "notspots" were outlined during the Royal Welsh Show today when the Farmers' Union of Wales and Ofcom held wide-ranging talks with farmers and representatives from the communications industry.

The theme of the meeting was "Connecting Rural Wales - 4G Mobile Broadband and the Mobile Infrastructure Project" and the Llanelwedd venue was an ideal place to discuss mobile coverage issues in Wales, said FUW president Emyr Jones.

"We are pleased to work in collaboration with Ofcom to show how the rollout of 4G services and the UK Government’s Mobile Infrastructure Project will bring significant benefits to consumers and businesses in rural areas of Wales.”

Demand for mobile data in Western Europe - estimated to increase by more than 500 per cent over the next five years - is being fuelled by smartphones and mobile broadband data services such as video streaming, email, messenger services, online mapping and social networking.

As the UK switches from analogue to digital TV, new spectrum capacity has become available to meet this demand.

Ofcom’s Wales director Elinor Williams said: “Our recent announcement on the combined spectrum auction will bring significant benefits to citizens and consumers in rural Wales.

“The auction is a crucial step in preparing for 4G mobile services and it is of significant importance to the Welsh economy.

“It will support a wide range of data services rapidly becoming essential features of modern life in rural Wales.”

Ofcom hopes 98% of the UK will have 4G coverage by 2017.

The meeting’s facilitator, FUW director of agricultural policy Nick Fenwick, said the introduction of 4G would be hugely beneficial to farmers.

Mr Fenwick - who grew up on a hill farm in Llanbrynmair, near Machynlleth, with poor mobile coverage - added: "The farming industry, in increasing numbers, is reliant on smart phone technology such as apps.

"It's second nature for the up-and-coming younger generation to use their phones in innovative ways.”

The Farmers’ Union of Wales today welcomed the Welsh Government’s decision to maintain ownership of Pwllpeiran research farm in Ceredigion.

Deputy agriculture minister Alun Davies revealed at the Royal Welsh Show that the Aberystwyth-based Institute for Biological Environmental and Rural Studies (IBERS) will take over the running of the farm.

“This decision is a major relief for the industry,” said FUW president Emyr Jones.

The proposals include the development of a knowledge exchange centre for upland land use, a cultural heritage centre and two early entrants’ starter farms with an educational support mission linking to skills and training.

Work with IBERS has already started towards a lease commencing in April next year.

Pwllpeiran’s main aim has been to significantly improve the viability of farming in the uplands to ensure continued agricultural productivity in disadvantaged areas while also stemming rural depopulation.

”Therefore, the continuation of existing research and the establishment of new research is great news for the industry,” said Mr Jones.

“For the best part of a century, Pwllpeiran has played an important role in the development of agriculture in Wales and in terms of global agriculture.

“Closing this facility would have been a step backwards for agriculture in Wales as there is no doubt thousands of farming families such as my own owe our very existence to the work being carried out there,” added Mr Jones, whose Bala upland beef and sheep farm won the British Grassland Society's top UK grassland award in 2008.

The FUW has made representations to the minister and attended various meetings outlining its concerns about the proposed closure of Pwllpeiran.

Against a background of rising global populations and diminishing natural resources, the union stressed that it is essential research work is undertaken to allow farmers to produce more food while having less impact on our environment.

The Farmers' Union of Wales today raised Welsh farming's concerns about the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) at a high level meeting with European Commissioner for Agriculture Dacian Ciolo? at the Royal Welsh Show.

During the meeting, also attended by numerous EU Commission officials and cabinet members and deputy agriculture minister Alun Davies, FUW president Emyr Jones made it clear that Wales needed to implement a payment system which did not undermine food production and that any changes should take place over an appropriate transition period.

"A host of other key concerns were discussed, including the adverse impact that 'greening' measures would have on both agriculture and the environment, and the need to allow farms to respond to market pressures, rather than limiting land use through restrictive greening measures."

Mr Jones said the meeting had been a very positive one at which the Commissioner acknowledged the need to look at a number of key issues of concern to Welsh farmers.

"We very much welcome the Commissioner's presence at the largest agricultural event of its kind in Europe.

"Mr Ciolo? has been left with a clear impression of the importance of agriculture and food production to Wales, and the key changes which need to be made to the CAP proposals in order to ensure Welsh agriculture is not undermined."

Mr Jones added that important amendments to the proposals had already been submitted to the EU Parliament by the FUW, following a report by EU Agriculture Committee Rapporteur Capoulas Santos, and that he hoped these would be accepted during the coming months.

Royal Welsh Show visitors will be encouraged to show their support for Welsh dairy farmers by signing an open letter to supermarkets and milk processors at the Farmers' Union of Wales pavilion alongside the main ring during this week's four-day event (July 23-26).

By signing the letter they will be expressing their dismay over the impact reductions in farmgate milk prices on farm businesses in Wales and calling for action to reverse the cuts.

The letter will also emphasise the need for all those involved in the dairy supply chain to work together to ensure an acceptable and sustainable price is received by all.

"The recent cuts come at a time when feed prices and wet weather have caused a major rise in milk production costs meaning that large numbers of farmers are receiving or anticipating below cost-of-production prices for their milk," the letter adds.

"Coupled with other financial pressures on producers, not least those caused by the ongoing bovine TB epidemic, the recent cuts represent a major threat to the industry as a whole, particularly the traditional family farms where consumers expect their milk to be produced.

"This is confirmed in a recent report by Kite Consulting which states that the exit rate for those producers subjected to the lowest price cuts and the best dairying conditions will be between 3% and 5% because of low confidence and cash-flow problems, while the exit rate as a whole could easily rise to levels of around 15% for the industry as a whole once a 1.5p/litre feed price increase takes effect.

"The report also states that the price cuts due on the 1st of August will result in a monthly deficit for the average farmer of £6,500, rising to £7,500 as anticipated production costs increases take effect.

"In the short term, and in order to avert a severe reaction by the industry and a major reduction in UK milk production, it is clearly in the interests of processors and supermarkets to undo the damage done over recent weeks by restoring prices.

"However, in the long term it is essential for all those involved in the supply chain to work together to ensure stability within the industry.

"The forming of Producer Organisations, adoption of a Code of Conduct and the development of acceptable contracts all have an important role to play in doing this.

"It is also essential that price mechanisms, which are transparent and ensure returns to producers which genuinely reflect production costs and market values, are introduced.

"I would therefore urge you to do all you can to ensure that the recent damage caused to the industry is undone, while seeking to secure the long term solutions referred to above well ahead of the abolition of milk quota in 2015."

A life-size model of a dairy cow Tegwen - Welsh for "fair" and "white" - painted in the colours of the Welsh flag will also highlight the FUW campaign to achieve a fair farmgate price for milk during the Royal Welsh Show.

A new black and white poster with a headline "Dairy Farmers Need a Fair Price" graphically depicting the plight of Welsh dairy farmers will hang from Tegwen's neck as she ruminates alongside the pavilion.

It will show the average retail price for milk is 30p per pint, production costs are 17p but the farmer receives just 14p per pint.

"The poster shows in simple terms just why the dairy industry is in crisis and why the number of traditional dairy farms continues to dwindle across Wales," said FUW milk and dairy produce committee chairman Dei (CORRECT SPELLING) Davies.

"Over 800 dairy farms in Wales have shut down between 2006 and last year. The figures reveal that in just five years they have dwindled from 2,727 to 1,908.

"It must not be overlooked that the loss of these farms has its own knock-on effect on community life in our rural villages and communities which thrived in past times due to a vibrant farming industry."