The Welsh government must establish a new tenant working group to ensure proposed agricultural policy works for the full range of tenancy and rental agreements in Wales.
The call was made at the NFU Cymru tenants’ seminar, held on Thursday 10 February, which set out a number of key challenges faced by farmers who do not own the land they farm.
The Welsh government plans to phase out the Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and phase in the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) from 2025.
But the farmer panel said it was vital that tenant farmers in the country were able to access this future support on equal terms amid fears they could be disadvantaged.
Figures show that up to 30 percent of land farmed in Wales is through formal and informal tenant agreements.
Chaired by Wrexham beef and arable farmer Will Evans, the event set out challenges such as gaining landlord’s permission for SFS agreements if they are multi-year, and where they are prevented from undertaking certain actions under the terms of their tenancy.
The risk of landlords seeking to secure future SFS payments for themselves was highlighted, given that Welsh government’s proposed scheme centres on the delivery of mainly environmental actions.
Several speakers also raised the risk of future policy driving widespread land use change to meet tree planting targets, warning this could also lead to existing tenancies not being renewed and limited opportunities for the next generation of farmers.
It would also have significant ramifications for rural employment, communities and the Welsh language in the future, the session was told.
Speaking after the event, NFU Cymru president Aled Jones said: “If future policy does not work for the tenanted sector, it does not work at all.
“There is a need to design future policy around the broad range of land tenure that exists in Wales, including tenancy and rental agreements, so that farmers are not left behind in farm policy reforms.
“It is important to recognise that many tenants are on short term Farm Business Tenancies and lets, and proposals represent a significant shift from having management control of land on the 15 May to be eligible for the BPS, as they do currently."
Mr Jones said the union was also concerned that some farmers may not be able to demonstrate sufficient management control of the land they farm to secure contracts for future support and may lose out.
“NFU Cymru has long been clear future support should be targeted at the active farmer – the person who takes the business risk associated with food production.
"It is the person who farms the land that should secure future support payments," he said.
In England, the recently announced Tenancy Working Group will provide tenant farmers an opportunity to make sure post-Brexit schemes work within agricultural tenancies.
A report will be published by the group later this year, Defra said in late January, setting out the main conclusions and providing a set of recommendations to government.
