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Dei Davies.[/caption]
The Welsh Government was called on by the Farmers' Union of Wales' milk and dairy produce committee today to carry out urgent impact assessments to ensure dairy producing areas are not devastated by imminent changes to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).
Following a meeting of the committee in Aberystwyth, newly-elected committee chairman Dei Davies said: "The committee was unanimous in its view that the Welsh dairy industry could be severely hit unless the Welsh Government acts now to undertake impact assessments looking at a variety of flat-rate single payment models and the effects they would have on dairy production and dairy farm incomes in regions throughout Wales."
Mr Davies, a Flintshire dairy farmer, said failure to prepare properly for changes to the CAP after 2013 could mean financial collapse in many of Wales'' most productive dairying areas.
"The draft CAP proposals published on October 12 would have a severe impact on dairy farms if implemented in their current form, and it is essential that Welsh Government establishes an evidence base which can be used to show Europe why the draft regulations need to be changed.
"There is also a desperate need to look at the impact of different flat-rate models on entire constituencies within Wales where dairy farming is prevalent and makes a key contribution to local employment."
Under the current CAP proposals, every farm business within a region would ultimately receive the same payment for every hectare of land they farm. However, it is likely that Wales will be able to define different regions of Wales with different payment rates.
"Work done by the FUW has shown that average total payments to upland and lowland farm businesses are currently very similar, but lowland farms are, on average, almost half the size of upland farms.
"This means that failure by the Welsh Government to investigate and implement an appropriate definition of 'region' would result in entire constituencies in Wales losing tens of millions, with catastrophic consequences to communities and in terms of food production and local employment."
Under the current proposals, the Welsh Government has 21 months before it notifies Europe of its intentions.
"The Welsh Government must ensure that it has left no stone unturned in the search for a model which is appropriate for Welsh agriculture as a whole, otherwise we will be backed into a corner and forced to make catastrophic decisions because essential ground work has not been done," said Mr Davies.
"It is also critical that our Deputy Minister is able negotiate with his counterparts across the UK and with the European Commission while having all the facts and figures at his disposal. He should not be going into those meetings empty-handed."