Pressure is mounting on the Welsh government to fix key elements of the Sustainable Farming Scheme as concerns grow over whether it will work for farmers on the ground and provide long-term stability for rural communities.
At a meeting this week with Deputy First Minister Huw Irranca-Davies, NFU Cymru said it supports the overall framework of the scheme but warned that further changes are needed if it is to deliver for food production, farm businesses and the wider countryside.
The Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) is expected to launch formally in 2026, with a transition period running until 2030, by which time the Basic Payment Scheme will be fully withdrawn, increasing the importance of getting the new system right.
Central to the union’s message was the need for funding certainty, including maintaining the current 70:30 split between the universal and optional or collaborative layers, and increasing the overall budget to keep pace with inflation.
NFU Cymru president Aled Jones said the scheme’s structure remains broadly sound but stressed that unresolved issues risk undermining confidence.
“Whilst NFU Cymru continues to believe that the framework of the Sustainable Farming Scheme is right, we remain of the firm view that there is still work to do to evolve the scheme, to ensure it can deliver for Welsh farming and the communities that it underpins,” he said.
He said it was encouraging that the Deputy First Minister recognised the need for further work on the optional and collaborative elements.
“I was pleased that the Deputy First Minister very much shared our view that there is ongoing work to do on the optional and collaborative layers of the scheme,” he said, adding that ministers had been willing to listen to concerns around a number of universal actions.
Among the practical issues raised were proposals for mandatory annual training under the Continuing Professional Development requirement, potential duplication between animal health and welfare measures and existing farm assurance schemes, and requirements linked to hedgerow management.
NFU Cymru said these aspects must be workable, avoid unnecessary duplication and properly recognise existing good practice, including training already delivered through organisations such as the union.
Turning to the optional layer, Mr Jones said NFU Cymru had pressed for faster progress on measures that actively support productivity, efficiency and profitability on farm.
“We impressed on the Deputy First Minister the need to progress proposals under the optional layer of the SFS to support productivity and efficiency on farm, measures to increase profitability and the sustainability of farming businesses,” he said.
He added that a well-resourced and practical Sustainable Production offer would be essential to meeting ambitions for growth in the Welsh food and farming sector, particularly in light of challenges identified in the Welsh government’s own economic modelling and impact assessment published earlier this autumn.
The Welsh government has said the SFS is intended to balance food production with climate, environmental and social objectives, but NFU Cymru warned that this balance will only be achieved if funding is sufficient and delivered in a way that provides certainty for businesses.
Concluding, Mr Jones said the universal layer and associated social value payment must remain at the heart of the scheme. “A properly resourced universal layer and social value payment that provides stability to farming businesses must continue to be at the heart of the SFS both now and in the future,” he said, adding that government must commit to maintaining “as a minimum, the current 70:30 budget split between the universal and optional/collaborative layers”.
Looking ahead, he warned that without a budget of at least £500m to reflect inflation and policy ambition, the scheme risks falling short. “An increased budget of a minimum of £500m is needed to take account of inflation and to help meet our shared ambitions for food, climate, environment, communities and language,” he said, cautioning that failure to address funding could undermine farmer confidence.
