The importance of European Union direct payments underpinning food production has been highlighted by NFU Cymru today in its response to the Welsh Government’s Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) consultation.
With market prices depressed across all the farming sectors the importance of Pillar 1 support to ensure long term food security is as important as it has ever been.
NFU Cymru President Stephen James said, “The latest Welsh Government farm income forecasts published earlier this year (12 months to February 2015) which predict a decline of around 24% in income across all farm types, highlight the susceptibility of the agricultural industry to market volatility.
Market prices today for our key commodities remain in a trough causing serious cash flow concerns. The current situation starkly highlights that direct payments are as important as they have ever been in helping to compensate farmers for market failure, to help manage price volatility and to reward high standards of farming, thus ensuring the key objectives of the EU Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) are met.”
NFU Cymru said in considering the future design of the BPS in Wales the Welsh Government must do its utmost to satisfy the following key objectives:
· Ensuring that the BPS can positively help deliver the NFU Cymru vision of a productive, profitable and progressive agricultural industry in Wales
· That Wales can play an increasing role in helping to meet the EU wide policy objective of the CAP, that is, ensuring consumers have access to food that is affordable, safe and produced to the highest production, animal welfare and environmental standards
· That in the move away from the historic basis of payment Welsh Government seeks a solution that would as far as possible minimise redistribution between farming sectors, areas and businesses in Wales
NFU Cymru President Stephen James said, “Taking the above into account and following extensive consultation with our membership the majority felt that these objectives could be best met by a payment system that recognises the productive potential of the land.
“We request that Welsh Government, as a matter of urgency, carry out a remapping exercise across the whole of Wales, mapping Wales’ agricultural land on the basis of the productive potential of the land with a view to consulting on the introduction of a regional payment system at the first possible opportunity that would be allowed by the European Commission.”
NFU Cymru President Stephen James continued, “Of the options that have been put forward by Welsh Government within the consultation, the feedback from members has been mixed. Even within defined areas and sectors of Wales we have received different views on which option is most suitable. The majority view being that the use of other options should be for an interim period until the remapping exercise is complete and the EU regulations are reviewed which may allow for a further consultation to take place where all the options allowed by the EU regulations can be properly considered.
“Whilst this is an extremely divisive consultation document for the industry a number of key themes have come forward time and time again from our members. These include exploring all efforts to minimise financial disruption to the industry; the need to accurately map Wales’ land on the basis of productive potential and the importance of targeting pillar one support at ‘active’ farmers.
“In making their decision Welsh Government must consider how each option that is being considered delivers against these policy goals and will therefore be best placed to support and increase agricultural productivity in Wales.”
