In a video released today featuring NFU Cymru Deputy President Paul Williams, the union outlines why there needs to be fair funding to support Welsh agriculture, to those politicians aspiring to sit in the next Senedd and form the next Welsh Government.
Calling for commitment
Speaking from his home farm near Llanrwst in the Conwy Valley, beef producer and fifth generation farmer Mr Williams said
“Welsh agriculture needs the next Welsh Government to commit to providing a ring-fenced, multi-annual budget to meet not only our ambitions for the sustainable growth of the sector, but also to ensure the financial resilience of our family farms and rural communities, and to do so alongside meeting our environmental and climate change obligations."
Stability and Support
“The agricultural support budget has not been uplifted for inflation from when it was set well over a decade ago. If we calculate for inflation, then that shows that an annual budget in excess of £500m is now needed to bring the level of agricultural support funding to where it ought to be.
NFU Cymru believes that the bulk of this funding needs to be directed at providing stability and supporting productivity and efficiency gains on farm, and that is why the union is firmly of the view that the current 70:30 split between the universal and optional and collaborative layers of the SFS is the correct one and must be maintained.”
In addition to the inflationary uplift, NFU Cymru is calling on the next Senedd and Welsh Government to commit to a ring-fenced, multi-annual agricultural support budget for the length of the forthcoming four-year Senedd term, a move which will offer farmers in Wales some much needed stability and certainty in an increasingly volatile and unstable world.
Food security and the future
Mr Williams said: “By indexing the support budget to above £500m, maintaining the current 70:30 split and committing to a ring-fenced, multi-annual budget, the next Senedd and Welsh Government can help not only secure the future of Welsh agriculture and our family farms, but also help ensure the food security of the nation through a continued supply of safe, affordable, high quality food from Wales.
The union’s Growing Forward Senedd Election manifesto can be read here.”
