Brecon and Radnor farmers and officials from the Farmers’ Union of Wales (FUW) have met with local Member of the Senedd James Evans to discuss critical farming matters. The breakfast meeting, which was held at the FUW’s Pavilion in Builth Wells, provided an opportunity for members to highlight their concerns over future payments, carbon trading and tree planting and the Water Resources ‘NVZ’ regulations.
Raising the issue of future payments for farmers and the need to cap payments, FUW Brecon and Radnor County President Darren Williams said: “We have supported the capping of direct agricultural payments since 2007, after farm employee wages and other factors are taken into account, on the grounds that this maximises the amount of money going to typical Welsh family farms and rural communities. For the same reasons the FUW also proposed that redistributive payments should be allowed under EU regulations - which the EU accepted.”
The FUW successfully lobbied for the introduction of both payment capping and redistributive payments in Wales at the lowest rates allowed by EU Regulations at the time and maintains the view that payment capping and redistributive payments should be maintained and enhanced under future policies.