Report on farming in the uplands welcomed
Farming organisations have welcomed the report from the House of Commons Environment Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee following its Inquiry into "Farming in the Uplands".
The Government has been urged to champion hill farming and the uplands by the Efra Select Committee today. The Committee report calls for action, not another strategy, and a Defra plan for the uplands with clear outcomes, timescales and responsibilities. The report states that increasing hill farm incomes and efficiency should be Defra’s "first priority".
Will Cockbain, NFU’s National Upland spokesman who gave evidence during the Inquiry, welcomed the Committee’s report and focus: "There is much we support in the Committee’s recommendations", he said. "We urge Defra to act swiftly given the parlous state of many hill farms facing increasing costs this winter.
"Farming must be at the heart of any Defra action in the hills and that payments should go to active farmers whose livestock play a key role in environmental management of the uplands. And we also share the Committee’s concern that Defra acts to improve efficiency and profitability as this offers the best chance for family farm succession.
"The report is right to recommend that new markets alongside food are developed. However, these must deliver incomes for those that manage the land and complement our increasingly important role as food producers.
"We also support a review of the Uplands Entry Level Scheme (UELS) uptake as the challenges to entry for tenants, especially those on shorter tenancies, and commoners is a major concern for the NFU. However, we are not in favour of a return to the old headage system which was bureaucratic and distanced the farmer from the market place."
TFA Chief Executive George Dunn said "On the farming issues the report from the Select Committee echoes many of the issues we raised in both our written and oral evidence to the Committee including the need to make farming the cornerstone of activity in upland areas, the need for a reconsideration of the benefit of livestock headage payments and the need to ensure that agri-environment schemes recognise the complex nature of land tenure in upland areas".
"In the TFA’s 2020 Vision for Agriculture published in August, the TFA argued that by 2020 there should be a new framework for ensuring sustainable development of upland areas with support focused on re-establishing ruminant livestock production as the cornerstone of land management for these fragile areas. The report "High Ground, High Potential" from the Commission for Rural Communities represented an important blueprint for how this vision could be achieved and we now agree with the Select Committee that what we need is a clear action plan from DEFRA to deliver it," said Mr Dunn.
"The TFA agrees wholeheartedly with the conclusion of the Select Committee that we need a new approach to rewarding farmers for managing the uplands. We believe that it was wrong to move support away from breeding animals which are integral to the management of the upland environment. We have long argued that it is important that people are rewarded for their work on managing the environment according to the full costs the farmer has to pay and the risk which he takes. However, it is also important to ensure that mechanisms are put in place to prevent the benefit being siphoned off in higher land values or higher rents," said Mr Dunn.
"Whilst the uplands have been the focus of attention from a number of bodies in the past, taking the Select Committee and the CRC reports together we now have a clear plan for an integrated approach to the issues being faced by upland communities and it is up to Government to work in partnership with those communities to deliver it. The opportunity for making real, long-term and sustainable change for upland communities must not be squandered," said Mr Dunn.
Friends of the Earth’s food campaigner Kirtana Chandrasekaran said:
"The Government’s hands-off approach to agriculture is failing our farmers and the environment.
"Grazing animals in uplands areas is good for the countryside and the global environment as it doesn’t depend on vast amounts of imported inputs such as soy animal feed.
"But hill farmers are losing out to factory farming which is destroying communities and rainforests in South America because of its use of soy.
"Factory farming is currently propped up with millions of pounds of taxpayer cash - Ministers should spend this money on targeted schemes to help upland farmers protect our wildlife and cherished landscapes."