Attendees at the recent Brecon & Radnor NFU Cymru county meeting, many of whom are currently members of Glastir and have also partaken in previous Welsh Government agri-environment schemes, expressed their concerns at the payment rates set for the new scheme and the loss of income they will face following the ending of their Glastir contracts in December. Members also highlighted the confusion that currently exists because of errors on the habitat maps produced by Welsh Government.
NFU Cymru Brecon & Radnor Chair Sharon Hammond said: “Following the Minister’s announcement of the new scheme in July this year, NFU Cymru expressed its concerns to Welsh Government that the scheme was being introduced with no economic impact assessment having been undertaken and questioned the ability of government to be able to design and implement a new scheme in such a short timeframe.
Member experiences
“We take no pleasure in seeing the issues we highlighted come to fruition, it is our members and the farmed environment that are the losers in all of this. Members at the meeting shared with us their experiences of the mapping problems they have encountered, with some habitat land currently under Glastir agreements missed out and instances of highly productive cropping land being incorrectly classed as habitat.
“Whilst we welcome the changes that RPW has made following NFU Cymru representations, providing mechanisms to address some of the mapping issues, there is a visible lack of confidence in the current application process and concerns that the errors in the expression of interest (EOI) process will not be addressed by the time contracts are issued later this autumn.
Farmers dismayed
“Those farmers in the meeting who had worked their way through the EOI process were left dismayed by the potential loss of income for agri-environmental activity they will face through entering the Habitat Wales Scheme compared to what they currently receive under Glastir.”
Sharon Hammond concluded: “The Habitat Wales Scheme is meant to support the transition into the Sustainable Farming Scheme in 2025, however the experiences of the past couple of weeks have really knocked the confidence of farmers in Welsh Government’s willingness to deliver fair reward for environmental activity on farm. There is clearly a need for government to urgently restore confidence in its agri-environment offer. Last month, NFU Cymru wrote to the Rural Affairs Minister requesting that Welsh Government extend current Glastir contracts for 2024 with the Habitat Wales Scheme made available as an option to those farmers not currently within the scheme.”
You can view more information about the Habitat Wales Scheme on our dedicated page here