NFU Cymru members go to Brussels to discuss future of LFA
The future of Less Favoured Area (LFA) designation in Wales was high on the agenda when a delegation of members from NFU Cymru’s LFA and Rural Affairs boards recently visited Brussels.
NFU Cymru members from across Wales learnt how the European Commission and the European Parliament operate. The three-day trip also gave Welsh farmers the opportunity to visit the Welsh Government office and the NFU office in Brussels.
During their visit to the European Commission, NFU Cymru members received a presentation from Josefine Loriz-Hoffman, Head of the Unit of Consistency of Rural Development Programmes in DG Agri about the current review of LFA boundaries in the European Union. Ms Loriz-Hoffman outlined the Commission’s proposals to base future LFA designation in the EU on eight common EU wide bio-physical criteria.
NFU Cymru LFA Board Vice Chairman Denzil Jenkins, a hill farmer from Pembrokeshire said, "NFU Cymru believes that the eight bio-physical criteria proposed by the Commission to delimit LFA areas across the EU fail to accurately consider some of the severe limitations to agriculture in Wales. They should also include an indicator that reflects the impact of a cool and wet maritime climate, such as we have here in Wales. Productive farming in the LFA is severely curtailed by the limited workability of our soils.
"As a result we urge the Commission to give the fullest consideration for the inclusion of Field Capacity Days as an additional criterion, due to the severe limitations that we have to contend with in the LFA.
"NFU Cymru remains opposed to the exclusion of socio-economic criteria, which in our view, will assist in mitigating the risk of land abandonment in the LFA areas of Wales. Peripherality, remoteness from markets and low service provision are real issues in these areas and unless addressed have the potential to lead to the contraction of farming and land management in the LFA."
Denzil Jenkins ended, "Whilst the drawing of the LFA boundaries is in itself not so significant, clearly the demarcation is hugely important in terms of defining where additional resources should be targeted to mitigate the permanent handicaps which farmers in LFA areas have to consistently contend with. Nearly 80% of Wales is currently designated as LFA and hill and upland farming continues to deliver positively in terms of economic, environmental, social and cultural objectives. We firmly believe that all of these factors are entirely compatible and should figure highly on the European Commission’s agenda."
