A report entitled ‘Ensuring Value for Money from Rural Development Grants Made Without Competition’ published by Audit Wales on June 30 has exposed the long-standing concerns of the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) regarding RDP expenditure and accountability.

In 2013, it was announced that the Welsh Government would use the maximum pillar transfer rate of 15% from Pillar 1 direct farm payments into the Pillar 2 Rural Development Programme (RDP). This 15% transfer rate equates to around an additional 40 million pounds a year to the RDP and was higher than the transfer rate chosen by most other European countries.

In response to opposition from the agricultural industry towards the maximum transfer rate, the Welsh agricultural industry was assured that the RDP would deliver transformational change for the sector. However, the FUW was extremely concerned at the decision to scrap a dedicated RDP Monitoring Committee and bring the responsibility under a single EU Programme Monitoring Committee as this would undermine the scrutiny and monitoring of the Welsh RDP expenditure.

The Audit Wales report on the RDP contains many of the FUW’s concerns and states that key aspects of the design, operation and oversight of the Welsh Government’s Rural Development fund were not effective enough to ensure the £53 million of grant awards would deliver value for money. In addition, the report states that the Welsh Government had adopted an approach of granting funds without competition and, in some cases, without taking any alternative steps to ensure the projects would deliver value for money.

Both Wales' Farming Unions - the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) and NFU Cymru - held a successful joint virtual roundtable meeting with the UK’s High-Level Climate Action Champion, Nigel Topping.

In addition to wider discussions around climate change, the roundtable event provided a platform to discuss the international ‘Race to Zero’ campaign. This campaign for a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery was launched on World Environment Day, and will run up to the UN Climate Change Conference in November 2020.

‘Race to Zero’ examines how each and every sector can contribute to a zero carbon recovery and agriculture is considered as part of the discussion but equally - and potentially more so - the solution.

Like every other industry, farmers must work to mitigate climate change but we must do so through innovation and by removing obstacles in ways which preserve and enhance family farming businesses and do not work in opposition to them.

The importance of our domestic food supply system has been brought into sharp focus during the Covid-19 pandemic; including the important role played by retailers and supermarkets.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) wrote to all major supermarkets during the early stages of the pandemic - at a time when empty shelves simply demonstrated the importance of food security and resilience - requesting for them to do all they could to maintain farmgate prices following the closure of the foodservice sector and consequently the loss in demand for many agricultural products.

The agricultural sector now faces a period of uncertainty and, as the UK Agricultural Bill progresses through the House of Lords, the FUW continues to lobby for Clause 2 to be introduced into the Bill in order to protect our home producers from sub-standard food imports.

The FUW continues to liaise with supermarkets on this issue and has recently written to all major supermarkets highlighting the importance of maintaining our world-leading food standards post-Brexit and and asking them to continue to support British producers by committing to not selling - not only chlorinated chicken or hormone-injected beef - but any food products produced to lower animal health and welfare, plant health and environmental protection standards than those adhered to by domestic producers.

The Farmers’ Union of Wales has welcomed the news that free BVD testing for cattle farmers in Wales has been extended until 31 March 2021. The testing, which is provided through Gwaredu BVD, supports both youngstock testing and the hunt for persistently infected animals in order to help herds eliminate the disease and achieve BVD free status.

More than 8,300 herds in Wales are now part of the programme and financial support is available to hunt PIs until the end of 2022.

The FUW, along with other industry bodies, continues to work towards those measures which will help Wales eliminate BVD. This extension allows more time for cattle herds to engage in this free testing programme in order to ensure that they have prepared their herds for the possibility of BVD legislation next year.