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Darren Williams[/caption]
The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) has welcomed Welsh Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths’ announcement of a £40 million investment scheme which will allow farm businesses to improve performance in key areas.
The scheme will provide 40% support for farm business investments of up to £12,000 over a four-year period for around eighty items linked to:
- animal health,
- genetics and performance,
- crop management,
- energy and resource efficiency
- Information and Communications technology.
Welcoming the announcement, FUW Younger Voice Committee Chairman Darren Williams said:
“Over the past three years farmers have paid around £120 million into the Rural Development Programme through pillar transfers, so the opportunity to access funding to improve their businesses in this way will be welcome.
“The FUW has lobbied hard to secure such a scheme for years, and more recently has worked with Hybu Cig Cymru, AHDB Dairy and the Welsh Government to draw up a list of possible items which would improve farm performance.”
Mr Williams said that while there would no doubt be items, desired by some businesses, which will not have made it onto the list due to the strict selection criteria, the comprehensive list of those which had, would bring major benefits to farms.
Announcing the scheme, Lesley Griffiths said the key objectives would be reducing carbon emissions and to improve resilience and competitiveness.
“We are continually striving to make our farms more efficient and effective, while also lowering our impact on the environment, but with many farm incomes well below the £20,000 mark, finding the money to invest in what’s needed can be impossible.
“This scheme should therefore provide welcome help on that front, while seeing investment on farms which have paid into the RDP for years but not received anything. I do however hope that every farmer will be able to access the scheme and not just a select target few,” said Mr Williams.
Mr Williams added he looked forward to seeing more of the scheme’s details, and hoped the application and implementation rules would not be too burdensome.