The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) launched it’s paper on payment capping in future support schemes at this year’s Royal Welsh Winter Fair.
In 2015 the Welsh Government introduced reductions for higher farm payments and an ultimate limit on the amount a farmer could claim through the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) - a system known as payment capping.
Also introduced in 2015 was a ‘redistributive payment’ system which reduces payments for farms with larger areas and increases the amount of money small and medium sized farms receive - an approach that benefits the vast majority of Wales’ family farms.
The FUW has supported the capping of direct agricultural payments, after farm employee wages and other factors are taken into account, since 2007, on the grounds that this maximises the amount of money going to typical Welsh family farms and rural communities.
The Welsh Government has refused to commit to maintaining any form of payment cap or redistributive payment system, raising concerns that the future schemes will lead to money being taken away from hard working family farms and given to large landowners and charities - or even people based outside Wales.
If coupled with a weakening of the current ‘active farmer’ eligibility criteria - a system that favours real farmers rather than absentee landowners - this would make matters worse, by taking away even more money from farming families and rural communities.
The payment capping document can be found here: https://www.fuw.org.uk/images/PaymentCapping-English.pdf
The FUW is also urging it’s members to contact their local Members of the Senedd to highlight why such payments should be capped and focussed on real working family farms who make the greatest economic, social and environmental contribution to Wales’ communities.
Further information and a template email/letter can be found here: https://www.fuw.org.uk/en/capping