The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed progress made in designing the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) - but says the scheme is at a critical stage that will decide whether it is fit for purpose or presents major barriers for the industry and excludes large numbers of farmers.
In a statement made to the Senedd on 11th July, Minister for Rural Affairs Lesley Griffiths announced that three reports had been published - two detailing the findings of a ‘co-design’ process and one giving the Welsh Government’s response - telling the Senedd that a phased approach to introducing the new scheme from 2025 would be considered to avoid large scale changes at once.
The most important thing is to make sure this scheme is accessible and works for every farm. That includes the transition into the scheme so any action taken to make that process smoother for farmers is welcome.
Many of the FUW’s calls made in its response to the July 2022 proposals have been responded to positively by the Welsh Government, including in terms of the need for a phased introduction, flexibility with regard to targets and the use of technology to avoid the ‘habitat review’ that will be required on entry to the scheme being undeliverable and unaffordable.
However, the scheme is at a critical stage in terms of whether further progress over the coming months results in a scheme that is practical and delivers economic, environmental and social sustainability, or has major obstacles set in stone that make the scheme unworkable for large numbers of farms and undermines Welsh food production.
In its response, the Welsh Government acknowledged that flexibility will be required with regard to the much-talked-about 10% tree cover requirement, stating that areas unsuitable for tree planting and being considered for exclusion from the total area used to calculate the 10% include existing inappropriate semi-natural habitats, including designated sites, deep peat; unplantable features such as scree and rock outcrops and tenanted land where tenants do not have the authority to plant trees.
This marks welcome progress that reflects the concerns the FUW have highlighted from the outset, but further concessions are needed to avoid requiring agricultural land that is important for food production and the sustainability of individual farm business being planted with trees.
The FUW has been clear from the outset that food production and economic viability have to be considered equally to the environmental aspects of this scheme.
Other proposals announced include using RPW Online to complete the habitat baseline review - an approach the FUW has long championed, highlighting that far more use should be made of data already collected from farms.
The Senedd also heard that the final consultation, expected later this year, would include payment methodology. This will be reassuring to many farmers as the transition to the scheme looms closer.
While this is welcome, it is essential that any published payment methodology and rates are genuine proposals rather than being set in stone so they can be fine tuned.
The Welsh Government must honour its commitment to undertake detailed modelling in order to investigate the economic impacts of possible payment methodologies and rates on farm businesses, sectors and regions, and use that information to do the fine tuning in collaboration with farming representatives - as has happened under previous reforms.
It is also essential that the proportion of the budget allocated to the baseline payment reflects what currently goes to the BPS. Under the proposals for universal actions, farmers will be asked to restrict their businesses and do far more than is currently required of our competitors across Europe, and it is only right that the industry is properly rewarded for doing this.
The FUW also has concerns regarding comments made in the Welsh Government report and by the minister in relation to how the scheme might work on common land.
The report implies that the (Common Land) Working Group wants to see funding for commons being excluded from the baseline payments and supported exclusively through the collaborative layer of SFS.
This is not true - members of the Common Land Working Group who represent the majority of Welsh commoners have repeatedly emphasised that it is essential that common land has automatic access to the baseline payments.
Around 2,000 Welsh farming families rely on common land for 25% or more of their current BPS payment, and excluding commoners from accessing baseline payments would be discriminatory and cause significant economic problems, particularly in communities where there are significant numbers of commons or commoners and accessing complex collaborative agreements is a challenge or impossible.
It is welcomed that so much of the FUW’s feedback has been reflected in the Welsh Government’s response, and it is hoped that further progress will be made through continuing work with the farming unions and others, including in terms of payment methodologies, capping and other aspects of the scheme.