Survey offers ray of hope for Glastir Scheme

A staggering 86% of Welsh farmers, surveyed by NFU Cymru, who have not applied for the All Wales element of Glastir, would consider applying next year if the conditions of the scheme are revised.

Also according to the survey, published today, many of the 74% of respondents (430) not applying for Glastir had more than one reason for not doing so*. The most common reason for not applying was the lack of financial incentive – with 69% expressing this view. 64% of this group stated that the prescriptions are too restrictive, more than half (54%) believe that they are unable to score sufficient points and 46% felt the scheme was too complex.

Ed Bailey, NFU Cymru President said, "NFU Cymru was interested in gaining an understanding of why farmers had decided to apply or did not apply to the scheme, farmers voluntarily completed the survey to which, we had an overwhelming response."

One respondent not entering the scheme stated, "I already have many wildlife friendly areas on my farm and it seems I get nothing to maintain them." Another believed it will destroy good farming practices, going contrary to all he has tried to do for the past 35 years.

Of the 26% of respondents (150) who had applied to join the All Wales Element of Glastir most had done so to offset losses due to the impending closure of Tir Mynydd and other agri-environment schemes (83%), 39% had applied in the hope that they could enter the targeted element of Glastir and 31% would like to be able to access the ACRES element of Glastir.

Of the comments received by NFU Cymru it is clear that many farmers have submitted an application form but will not join the scheme unless scheme conditions were amended with one farmer summing it up by saying, " not committed but wanted to keep all options open".

Mr Bailey concluded, "There are positives that the Minister can take from this survey not least the fact that most farmers will reconsider applying next year if the scheme conditions are improved. The last 20 months have been immensely frustrating for us as a Union with the Welsh Assembly Government continually failing to recognise the very real concerns that we have been raising with regards to the detail of the scheme, these very same comments have been echoed loud and clear in our survey results. Through the review panel the Minister now has an opportunity to capture the level of interest and desire of farmers to enter Glastir by revisiting the details of the scheme to make it one that can deliver for both farmers and the Assembly Government."

Almost 600 farmers responded to the NFU Cymru Glastir Survey, with the majority echoing NFU Cymru’s long held concerns about the new agri-environment scheme. The Union will pass the survey results on to the Chair of the Independent review panel once s/he has been appointed.