The Farmers’ Union of Wales Glamorgan and Gwent teams enjoyed a busy and successful Vale Show discussing many farming matters including the new habitat scheme, and the Sustainable Farming Scheme.
Union officials and staff met with local politicians to raise key concerns members in the counties have and used the opportunity to highlight that the new habitat scheme window, which will be opening in September, didn’t give members any opportunity to prepare or feed into what the scheme would look like.
FUW Gwent and Glamorgan County Executive Officer Sharon Pritchard said: “When the Welsh Government announced that mainstream Glastir contracts will not be extended for the 3,000 farms in those environmental agreements, we were clear that this was going to cause huge problems for our members both in terms of the implications for farm businesses and the practicalities of designing and introducing a new replacement scheme over a period of just a few months.”
Union officials explained that some of those farms affected have been in such agreements for thirty years, and all will have changed their farming practices and stock numbers to cope with the scheme rules.
"As such, this quick change is a huge stress factor for thousands of farming families, not only in terms of their financial viability but also with regard to how the Welsh Government will implement such a scheme over such a short period of time," added Sharon.
It's understood that more than 17,000 Welsh farmers may be eligible to apply for the new interim scheme this autumn ahead of the transition into the Sustainable Farming Scheme from 2025 onwards.
FUW Gwent and Glamorgan Deputy County Executive Officer Gemma Haines also used the opportunity to reinforce members' significant disappointment that the farming industry had been excluded from discussions on the cancellation of Glastir contracts and the design and introduction of a new interim scheme.
"With all previous schemes the FUW and other key representatives have been involved in the design process for years, yet in this case, despite us having repeatedly raised questions regarding the future of Glastir since December, there has been no such codesign," she said.
FUW President Ian Rickman, who joined the team at the Vale show, added: "We of course sympathise with the Welsh Government over the pressures that UK Government cuts to our farm and rural development budget have caused.
"In successive announcements from December 2019, the UK Government announced cuts which add up to losses of more than £200 million for Welsh farmers and rural development.
"This was a complete betrayal of the promises made in the run up to the Brexit referendum and the 2019 Conservative manifesto,and we've raised these points with politicians we met at the show," added Mr Rickman.