Farming community is being let down

PHILIP J MILTON (Letters, May 28) talks about a political party which he considers has “betrayed its core support base in places like the West Country”. So let’s see how his own party, the Conservative Party, has treated its core support in the Wes Country – farming and the rural community.

The Department for International Trade has admitted that the muchvaunted trade deals with Australia and New Zealand will damage UK farming, which they say is “expected... to contract”.

Lord Deben, the chair of the independent Climate Change Committee, called the New Zealand deal a “disgrace” and said: “It is not acceptable and completely at odds with everything the Government has promised to do to safeguard our farmers and protect consumers.”

The NFU has stated that the deal with Australia “will jeopardise our own farming industry and could cause the demise of many, many beef and sheep farms throughout the UK”.

Farming in the South West is at particular risk, as the proportion of beef and sheep farms here is a third greater than the average in England. A Devon beef farmer has described the situation as “an absolute betrayal”.

The new immigration policy and chaotic visa system for seasonal workers has created massive problems, leading to tonnes of crops, including Cornish daffodils, left rotting in the fields, and also caused the culling of over 35,000 pigs.

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee’s recent report ‘ Labour shortages in the food and farming sector’ was unsparing in its criticism regarding the incompetence of the Government.

Neil Parish, the ex-chair and himself a farmer, has said: “We are seeing our industry slowly being destroyed”.

The Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI) at the University of Gloucestershire has recently completed a study of the phasing out of the Common Agriculture Policy Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) and the ‘uncertain start’ of the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI). The study paints an alarming picture, with more than £800 million being wiped from

South West farm businesses over the next five years. It anticipates that the current rates of SFI will bring around 10% to 30% of the amount of former BPS payment to farmers and land managers.

Chris Short, associate professor and lead researcher at the CCRI, has said: “Many farms in this region are typically small, family businesses, particularly vulnerable to a loss of support. The funding is disappearing, just as living and business costs are rising sharply across the country.”

The present Conservative Government committed in its 2019 manifesto to maintain the level of spending on farming. This has been proved to be untrue.

The only conclusion one can take from this is that the Conservative Party under this Government appears to have treated farming and the rural community, its core support in the Westcountry, with contempt – a contempt borne out of