The Welsh Assembly Government's (WAG) decision to set up a working group to discuss and resolve issues and concerns raised by common land graziers over the introduction of the controversial Glastir land management scheme was welcomed by members of the Farmers' Union of Wales common land committee today.

"We have been calling for the establishment of this group for the past six months and raised the issue directly with the Minister on a number of occasions last year," said committee chairman Lorraine Howells. "We were, therefore, pleased when, in early January, WAG officials confirmed that this group would be set up.

"The first meeting was held on 17 February, and further meetings will be held on a monthly basis."

Miss Howells is a member of the Glastir Commons Working Group along with FUW policy director Dr Nick Fenwick and chairman of the union's hill farming committee Derek Morgan.

She told today's meeting: "We have been lobbying the Assembly regarding the particular problems associated with common land and Glastir and asking them to set this group up since last summer, so it is good that it is finally off the ground."

However, the committee was unanimous in expressing concern regarding the current timetable given the diverse problems associated with Glastir on common land, and reiterated calls for the scheme's implementation date to be postponed for 12 months.

"Almost 18 per cent of Welsh farms have common land, and this is therefore of critical importance to Welsh agriculture, especially in those areas where common land makes up the majority of farmland.

"Everything must be done to make Glastir accessible to as many commoners throughout Wales as possible but this will take time. The transition from LFA payments, in the form of Tir Mynydd, to the Glastir agri-environmental scheme means a massive escalation in eligibility and compliance criteria.

"This will be a complex enough process for normal farmland, but on common land the complexities are multiplied due to the different ways in which common land is used in different areas, and the diverse range of habitats that exist on Welsh commons.

"Tir Mynydd and its predecessors have helped stem rural depopulation and maintain livestock for decades. If we do not get Glastir right for common land it will have severe consequences for Welsh communities and environments, and accelerate the abandonment of the ancient hefting systems that have defined much of Wales's uplands."

Ynys Môn (Anglesey) MP Albert Owen's Private Member's Bill calling for the appointment of a Grocery Market Ombudsman has made major progress towards becoming law, Farmers' Union of Wales vice president Eifion Huws said today.

"The Bill, which enjoys cross-party support, needed 35 MPs to vote for it during its second reading in the Commons this morning and I am very pleased that it received 44 votes with none in opposition," said Mr Huws, a dairy farmer on Anglesey.

"By clearing this hurdle the Bill has made major progress to becoming law and we strongly hope the big supermarkets will not play for time and try to reduce the powers of the proposed Ombudsman as it passes through parliament.

"The Bill will now be referred to a standing committee and will need continued Government support to proceed further. The FUW will continue to give Mr Owen its enthusiastic backing and we sincerely hope his fellow Labour MPs will also give him their full support.

"The FUW has vigorously backed Mr Owen's campaign to create greater choice and quality for consumers while providing a fair deal to supermarket suppliers and I was delighted to travel to Westminster this week, together with the union's Anglesey county chairman, vice chairman and executive officer, to show our total support for his efforts.

"His Bill will enable the Government to implement the Competition Commission's recommendation for the creation of a new independent arbiter with the power to settle disputes between major retailers and their suppliers and to investigate possible breaches of the recently introduced Groceries Code of Practice.

"Both the Government and the Opposition have already indicated their support for the principle of an Ombudsman. Today's vote is a major step forward towards fairness for consumers above all but also for suppliers."

A suggestion that dairy cows and some beef cattle be permanently housed so the methane gas they produce can be captured is only a small part of a proposed new strategy on how agriculture and rural land use in Wales can help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Farmers' Union of Wales.

The union's deputy director of policy Rhian Nowell-Phillips said the report, presented by the Land Use Climate Change Group to Assembly rural affairs minister Elin Jones, contained a range of data, evidence and possible scenarios which would help inform the debate on future policy decisions.

"We may not believe that everything in it will, or should, happen but for once it does challenge some of the current assumptions that livestock production will have to be drastically reduced in Wales if the Assembly wants to mitigate methane production," she said.

"Food security will be an amazing motivator in the future and I have no doubt there will be a desire to balance the need for increased food production with ways to capture and reuse greenhouse gases.

"In the meantime, some of the practical aspects of the report could help start processes to help farmers identify the win wins for them in starting to mitigate climate change. For example, the use of feed additives to reduce methane, or the reuse of agricultural by-products such as biogas, heat and water, could help reduce fixed costs."

The Wales Rural Observatory's report on "Deep Rural Localities" and many of the comments at the Assembly's debate on its findings yesterday are similar to concerns often expressed by the Farmers' Union of Wales.

The union's president Gareth Vaughan said today: "Many of the conclusions of the Wales Rural Observatory report are in line with the union's ongoing concerns, highlighted over several years, and we are not surprised that they support our standpoint on such issues.

"We have regularly called for planning changes to allow for more affordable housing in a bid to stem the migration of young people from rural areas. Increased public transport provision and improved broadband and mobile phone coverage are also a crucial necessity for those living and working in Wales' numerous isolated communities.

"These services are no longer merely desirable for rural dwellers - they are vital in enabling rural businesses to survive in these modern times. Farmers are increasingly required to access the internet to comply with new legislation affecting their livelihoods and traditional way of life and the FUW has long campaigned for reliable broadband and mobile phone reception to be widely extended.

"Meanwhile, rural dwellers have to face up to higher council taxes than urban areas, increasing their cost of living, yet still experience repeated cuts in vital services."

A delegation of Farmers' Union of Wales officers and members will attend a parliamentary reception at Westminster tomorrow (4 March) to underline the union's support for a Supermarket Ombudsman.

Led by FUW vice president, Anglesey dairy farmer Eifion Huws, the delegation was invited by the island's MP Albert Owen to the reception, co-hosted by Grocery Market Action Group (GMAG) chairman Andrew George MP, on the eve of the second reading of Mr Owen's Private Members' Bill calling for an Ombudsman.

"The principle of having an Ombudsman now has the backing of all the main political parties who, like the FUW, recognise it is vital in order to enforce the Grocery Supply Code of Practice introduced by the Competition Commission last month," said Mr Huws.

"The union believes the code goes part of the way towards breaking the arm-lock supermarkets have over their suppliers by providing retailers with clear guidelines for dealing fairly with suppliers. It also strengthens the union's demands for the Government to take further prompt action and appoint an independent ombudsman with real teeth to ensure supermarkets adhere to the guidelines.

"It is only then that we can be confident that the supermarkets' arm-lock has been broken once and for all - almost nine years since Tony Blair told farmers the supermarkets had an arm-lock on us and promised it was something 'we have got to sit down with them and work out'.

"Mr Owen's Bill will enable the Government to implement the Competition Commission's recommendation for the creation of a new independent arbiter with the power to settle disputes between major retailers and their suppliers.

"It has received wide cross-party support and was sponsored by MPs from Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and the SDLP. It has also been warmly welcomed by the FUW and a number of significant charities, consumer organisations and business groups."

Nearly six years ago the FUW joined 16 other farming, consumer, development and environmental organisations to form the Breaking the Armlock Alliance and demand stricter controls over the major supermarkets' trading practices, particularly to stop them passing on unreasonable costs and demands to farmers and growers in the UK and overseas.

The alliance - which also includes ActionAid, Banana Link, British Independent Fruit Growers Association, farm, Farmers for Action, Farmers' Link, Friends of the Earth, Grassroots Action on Food and Farming, International Institute for Environment and Development, National Federation of Women's Institutes, National Sheep Association, New Economics Foundation, Pesticide Action Network UK, Soil Association, Small and Family Farms Alliance and WyeCycle - launched its campaign at a parliamentary briefing hosted by Andrew George on 16 March 2004.

But as far back as back as 2000, a Competition Commission report acknowledged the biggest supermarkets were bullying their suppliers and since then mergers and buy-outs have tipped the power balance even further in favour of the retail giants.

In May 2006, following public pressure, the Office of Fair Trading referred the UK grocery retail market for a fresh market investigation by the Competition Commission which completed its inquiry and published its final report in April 2008.

It found supermarkets guilty of transferring unnecessary risks and excessive costs onto their suppliers. In its proposed remedies the commission recommended a new Grocery Supply Code of Practice - to replace the previously discredited Supermarket Code of Practice - and the establishment of an ombudsman to police the new code.

Mr Huws said: "We believe suppliers are forced to bear much of the costs when supermarkets decide to launch price wars. Consumers are happy to see prices fall, and I'm sure that most believe that it is the supermarkets that take a cut in their own profits on individual items to try and win a greater market share.

"But I don't think they would be so happy if they realised that it is the farmers and suppliers further down the chain that have their profit margins squeezed to allow the supermarkets to make even bigger profits, threatening future food security issues."

Welsh farmers are being encouraged by the Farmers' Union of Wales to provide feedback about the scoring system the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has set to gain access to its new Glastir land management scheme.

WAG has just published the documentation for the All Wales Element of the scheme - including the scorecard and guidance, Whole Farm Code and the All Wales Element Options - which can be found on the FUW's website at www.fuw.org.uk

The Scorecard has been developed as a guide to assist farmers in selecting the options available to them to complete on the farm. It will also determine the threshold number of points required to access Glastir based on the size of the farm and whether it is part of the Organic Scheme.

Once the chosen options which the farmer wants to or is able to complete have been added, the Scorecard will determine if the farm has accrued sufficient points to enter Glastir.

"The union is encouraging all its members to have a go at completing the Scorecard to ascertain how accessible Glastir actually is to farmers. We are also encouraging them to feed the results back to their county office," said FUW land use and parliamentary committee chairman Richard Vaughan.

"The feedback is vitally important to the union so that it can understand whether particular sectors are having difficulty in earning sufficient points to enter the scheme.

"This information can then be used as evidence to the Welsh Assembly Government on the accessibility of the scheme to its members."