Taking the tech initiative to lessen impact of Brexit

Karen Cherrett, of PA Consulting, explores the challenges and opportunities facing the farming industry in post-Brexit Wales, amid an age of rapid technological change

FOR farming communities in Wales, the possible impacts of Brexit are growing cause for concern, exacerbated by the hardships of a prolonged dry summer already eating into stocks of this winter’s feed and reducing crop production.

The Welsh Government assures farmers that it will pass on all of the funding it gets in lieu of the Common Agricultural Policy (around £300m at present) to farmers, at least in the first two years after Brexit.

However, it will not confirm whether this will be under the same or different rules – and indications are that the rules are already changing in favour of more conditions that reward environmental responsibility and use of innovation and productivity measures.

Speaking at last week’s Royal Welsh Agricultural Show in Builth Wells, neither Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Michael Gove nor Prime Minister Theresa May would be drawn on confirming the amount Westminster will pass on to the Assembly for farmers in Wales, nor the likely conditions or terms attached to such funding.

This all adds to the climate of uncertainty at a time when pressures on sustainability of many farms are mounting.

Farm poverty is already commonplace. Farm holdings tend to be small-scale and average agricultural earnings from sheep in Wales range from £17,000 to £27,000 per annum, according to low-level or hill farming.

The prospect of the loss of EU funding, a change in the way it is delivered and potential for new trade barriers represent a very real and present cash-flow and investment crisis for land-based industries across Wales – the lifeblood of many rural communities.

While the Welsh Government is currently consulting on the future of farming reimbursement arrangements – the White Paper “Brexit and Our Land” was launched for consultation on July 10, 2018 – meaningful action and response is all taking time and energy from a community that has very little of either to spare.

There is a growing risk that the greatest impact of Brexit is that it focuses everyone too much on pontificating about the multiple scenarios of future policy and diverts attention and resources away from taking charge of innovation in the sector.

Innovation creates industry edge and, when done well, sustainability. Globally, agricultural businesses are adopting digital agriculture to revolutionise the way resources are managed and create sustainable businesses.

Techniques as diverse as using sensors and drones to capture feed, seed and livestock data; creating open platforms to process and share inter-seasonal data – informing better decisions; and producing connected products with inbuilt apps to assist the implementation of those decisions, are being used worldwide.

We know from experience that deployment of hand-held technologies in Welsh farms as part of a government-backed scheme resulted in the majority of the equipment metaphorically being put away in the top drawer of Welsh dressers across the farming community.

This was not because the idea or the technology was poorly conceived, but because the engagement and benefit of innovative technology use was poorly promoted and implemented.

We know from global research that the agriculture industry can