In attendance at the meeting were Elin Jones, MS for Ceredigion, Cefin Campbell, MS for Mid and West Wales region and Ben Lake, MP for Ceredigion.
Speaking after the meeting Ceredigion County Chairman, Glyn Davies, who hosted the politicians on his farm in Llanrhystud, said:
“Like many other farmers in Wales, our Glastir contract is due to end on December 31st and we are currently in total limbo as to whether or not we will receive an extension to our contract. This is a worrying situation to be in and this uncertainty makes it very difficult to make any future plans for our business. I’m very conscious of the danger of finding ourselves on a funding cliff-edge. We’ve stressed to our local Senedd members that Glastir agri-environment scheme contracts should be extended to bridge the gap to new schemes, and to ensure the continued delivery of environmental outcomes.”
The frustrations felt by local farmers with Welsh Government’s approach to implementing and rolling out the RDP 2014-2020 also came to the fore at the meeting and Glyn Davies commented: “I’ve heard numerous examples of local farmers being thwarted in their attempts to access RDP grant funding, for example through the recent application windows for the Glastir Small Grants Scheme and the FBG Yard Covering schemes. These schemes have proved to be popular with farmers and are helping to deliver the shared ambition of industry and government to enhance our environment and further improve our sustainability credentials. With recent application windows being oversubscribed we would like to see commitments to ensure that farmers have further opportunity to access these schemes through additional adequately resourced application windows. The clock is ticking on the current RDP, and we expect Welsh Government to spend in full the EU 2014-2020 Rural Development Programme of £835m before the end of the 2023 cut-off for drawing down funds.”
Glyn Davies concluded: “NFU Cymru’s vision is for a productive, profitable and progressive farming sector, producing world-renowned, climate friendly food in an environment and landscape that provides habitats for our nature to thrive. I strongly believe that Welsh food and farming delivers economic, environmental, cultural and social benefits for all the people of Wales whilst meeting our ambition for net zero agriculture by 2040. In the short-term, Welsh Government can get behind this vision by providing some much-needed assurances and commitment to Glastir contract holders who are currently facing an uncertain future. Welsh Government can also help by ensuring that unspent RDP funds available under the EU legacy RDP scheme is now deployed swiftly so that financial support reaches Welsh farmers on the ground.”
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