The Tenant Farmers Association has stressed the need for the Welsh Government to take on board the complexities of agricultural tenancies when it is developing farm policy or establishing new grant schemes.
TFA Cymru Chairman, Dennis Matheson, said: “It is all too easy for policymakers to assume that all farmers are owner-occupiers and able to act alone in responding to policies and grant schemes developed by the Welsh Government.
“However, a significant proportion of farmers in Wales are wholly or predominantly reliant upon a tenanted holding which means they have to operate in compliance with their individual contracts of tenancy and the legislation which underpins those agreements,” said Mr Matheson.
“This is part of the reason why TFA Cymru was formed, to highlight to the Welsh Government where it needs to take a different approach in handling farm tenancy situations.
“A recent case in point is the development of the Glastir Small Grant scheme recently discussed at a stakeholder meeting at which TFA Cymru was represented,” said Mr Matheson.
The Glastir Small Grants scheme will provide a maximum of £5,000 of funding per farm for capital works projects aimed at climate change adaptation and mitigation schemes, management of water resources, protection of landscapes and contributing to biodiversity growth.
“With the first year of the scheme focusing on carbon capture and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the authors of the grant scheme have gone for an easy hit by focusing on tree planting as a way to achieve these objectives.
“However, not only are tenants usually banned from planting trees under their tenancy agreements, existing trees are usually reserved to the landlord making it impossible for tenant farmers to get involved in participating in the scheme.
“As a pragmatic way forward, TFA Cymru has proposed that hedgerows should be treated in exactly the same way as trees so as to even up the playing field between owner-occupiers and tenants and I am pleased that this is being considered by the Welsh Government,” said Mr Matheson.
“This small example highlights the important work that TFA Cymru does on behalf of all tenant farmers in Wales.
“Other farming organisations which lack the focus on landlord/tenant matters are likely to miss such intricacies and therefore it is vital that TFA Cymru continues to engage with the Welsh Government and other organisations to ensure that farm tenants are not forgotten,” said Mr Matheson.
