NFU board members discuss CAP reform
Following the recently published European Commission proposals on the future of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), the debate about how the CAP will look from 2014 onwards was the main topic of discussion at a recent meeting of the NFU Cymru Less Favoured Area (LFA) Board.
NFU Cymru LFA Board Chairman John Owen said, ’Some of the proposals contained within the European Commission document are a cause for concern to farmers in the Less Favoured Areas in Wales, particularly the proposals for 30 per cent of future direct payments to farmers to be linked to greening measures. NFU Cymru believes that the principle for greening Pillar 1 of the CAP is fundamentally flawed and will hamper all our efforts as farmers to produce food. We firmly believe that the greening measures, as currently proposed, fail to take into account the agri-environmental gains we have made in Wales and would be better delivered through voluntary measures under Pillar 2. Many questions remain unanswered over how the proposed greening element of Pillar 1 payments will impact on the new Glastir agri-environment scheme.’
The proposed changes to the CAP come on top of recent changes to the support available to LFA farmers in Wales through Pillar 2 of the Wales Rural Development Plan, which have caused concern to upland farmers in Wales.
Mr Owen continued, ’The Welsh Government has already announced there will no longer be a LFA differential to the payment rates for the All Wales Element of Glastir. In addition to this, Tir Mynydd LFA support payments will come to an end from March 2012, which will mean there will no longer be any recognition of the additional difficulties and extra financial costs of livestock production in the less productive farming areas of Wales.’
’In spite of recent firming of market returns for Welsh farmers for both beef and sheep commodities, the support that LFA farmers in Wales receive through the CAP continues to be crucial to the viability of farming the uplands of Wales. These are very uncertain times for farmers in Wales and this is why it’s so important for the Welsh Government to secure changes to the current proposals that will better fit the needs of Welsh farmers,’ Mr Owen said.
