The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Crucial role of agriculture ‘must be pressed home’
No time for fatalism ahead of most important poll in 50 years, warns NFU vice-president
Farmers have been warned that this is no time for fatalism – and to do everything in their power to keep the industry to the forefront of the minds of political hopefuls.
Making a foray north of the border to address this week’s AGM of the Scottish Society for Crop Research, English NFU vice-president and industry commentator Guy Smith said next month’s general election was likely to be the most important one for the farming sector for 50 years.
He said that while farmers might be suffering as much from voting fatigue as the rest of the general public, this would be the first time since the 1966 election that they would be choosing politicians who would actually be writing farm policy.
Speaking at the James Hutton Institute outside Dundee, he said it was “incredibly important” that the key role which agriculture played in the economy was pressed home to politicians of all hues.
“We need to take every opportunity to push the importance of agriculture and its key role in the wider food industry – and we certainly shouldn’t assume that we’re too small for the politicians to notice.”
But while he warned against the industry becoming the predictor of its own demise, he was under no illusions as to the challenges which lay ahead in setting the scenery for a productive future for the industry.
Stating that getting the right trade deals would be a crucial factor, he admitted that Defra faced some key challenges.
“So far they have been keeping their hands close to their chests – but that might simply be because they aren’t holding many good cards”, said Mr Smith.
He suggested that changes to domestic policy should be phased in over a period of years – pointing out that on entry to the EU the change from the UK’s deficiency payment to Common Agricultural Policy schemes was phased in over six years.
On the overall challenge to withdrawing from the EU over a two-year period, he said someone had asked why this short time scale had been written into the Treaty of Rome.
“And the answer has to be that they thought that it would ensure that no one would be stupid enough to try to do so,” said Mr Smith.
But he also voiced fears that recent cuts to Defra’s budget had come at a time when it would be facing an exponential increase in its workload.
“Put simply, their role will be transformed – no longer will they simply be regulators – they will also need to deliver policy and carry out other functions, many of which they currently lack the skill sets to perform.”
Mr Smith also had a warning for those who thought that the current crisis being faced by the arable sector as it faced losses of key crop protection products was of little concern, and who believed that “happy days” awaited, with all such regulatory worries disappearing the day the UK left the EU.
“Such an approach is naïve in the extreme – and while you can bank on the fact that we’ll need to maintain strict regulations, it’s a simple fact that no matter the regime, getting pesticides back after they’ve lost approval would be incredibly difficult,” he said.