Brexit demands leadership at every level, says top adviser

Farmers will have to decide which course they want to take

Brexit will unleash a dam of pent-up change on the UK’s agricultural sector – and the industry will need outstanding leaders, from the top organisations right down to individual farm businesses, to cope with “the biggest peace-time task” since 1945.

Stating that area payments had been holding back structural change within the farming industry for years, one of the country’s leading specialist advisers yesterday said there was huge pressure for change and, at the political level, a real drive for a more competitive economy.

“And this will mean more challenges from the market and greater expectations on farming businesses,” said Jeremy Moody, secretary and adviser to the Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV).

In a call to the industry to realise that the undertaking was far larger than anything the Government could manage on its own, Mr Moody took a different tack from those who suggested that Brexit should be viewed as just another factor outside the farmer’s control.

“If the industry wishes to take control of its destiny it requires effective and practical leadership at every level – we need to analyse situations, develop ideas, and have direction to manage change effectively,” said Mr Moody.

While he admitted that Brexit was “a prompt” to do many things which the industry should already be doing, such as improving productivity and competing for world trade, he said farmers would have to decide which course they wanted to take.

“If farmers decide they are commodity producers, they will have to focus hard on reducing costs of production and improving efficiencies,” he said, adding that if they couldn’t compete on price, other options were open.

“Adding value, niche crops, more segmented markets are all possibilities. Farmers have formidably good collateral in land, so can raise the investment needed to diversify.”

Mr Moody said that such a diversified approach wasn’t part-time farming but “multi-faceted earning”.

“Historically the CAP was not about the support payments to farmers that it has become,” he went on.

“And there is no reason why the successor policy should simply be about income payments.”

He suggested that future policy would be about investing in marketing, innovation, the environment, research, and resilience, and while CAAV was working closely with the Government in discussing future policy, agricultural valuers were ideally placed to help farmers and owners review their businesses for the future challenges.

“There is going to be more demand for broadly based, practical professional advice across the whole rural economy, and we must be at the cutting edge of any such developments to ensure we can deliver that,” added Mr Moody.

Jeremy Moody said there is a huge pressure for change in the farming industry.