Industry leaders want agriculture given greater prominence in Bill
Farm productivity must not play second fiddle to other objectives laid out in the Government’s Agriculture Bill, industry leaders have warned.
The Tenant Farmers’ Association (TFA) wants to see Defra’s future policy for agriculture give greater prominence to matters of raising farm productivity – alongside a new system of “public money for public goods”, such as better air and water quality and improved soil health.
While the TFA, which is the only organisation solely dedicated to the agricultural tenanted sector, says it is encouraged by the acknowledgement of productivity measures within the Agriculture Bill, now is the time for more meat to be put on the bones.
Lynette Steel, farm policy adviser for the TFA, said: “We support the Government’s aspiration for a new environmental land management scheme that will pay farmers to deliver a raft of public benefits, but this cannot operate in isolation from measures to improve farm productivity and to correct for market failures within food supply chains.”
The landmark Bill, first introduced into Parliament last month and having its second reading last week, states it will also be underpinned by measures to increase productivity on farms and invest in research and development. For example, there will be funding available for farmers to come together to develop and get the research projects that they want and need, whether that be on soil health or sustainable livestock farming.
This will lead to “practical gains” for farmers that help them become more profitable and also reduce their environmental footprint, it says.
Mrs Steel added that Defra must now show that it will “use the powers to introduce assistance to the farming industry to continue to deliver high quality food to UK and international consumers, produced to high standards of animal welfare and environmental management, at prices consumers can afford and at returns that reward the risk, investment and effort of the farming community”.
“The TFA is calling for funding to be made available for investment to improve infrastructure, knowledge exchange, skills development, re- search and innovation,” she said. “Decades of poor profitability and changes in public policy have caused us to fall behind as an industry in all these areas and has limited our productivity growth. These areas must now be addressed to ensure the success of the industry in the post Brexit era.
“The Government must deliver a scheme that focuses on driving productivity, allowing all farmers to make a step change in their businesses. Beyond the Agriculture Bill, the Government’s Industrial Strategy puts productivity at the top of its list of priorities. This must also be true for agriculture and we need to see the Government giving priority to developing a scheme for productivity alongside its plans for environmental land management.”