Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Defra must honour its promise on support
Government pledges to continue to support British farming post-Brexit must be kept, Bridgwater and West Somerset Conservative MP Ian Liddell-Grainger warns the Farming Minister, George Eustice
DEAR George, Farmers are a suspicious lot, as you are aware. I don’t blame them: they have much to be suspicious about. Particularly – and unfortunately – when it comes to what they hear from the Government.
And that’s because, by and large, successive governments have not always had impeccable records when dealing with agricultural matters, whether in failing to do anything to control badger numbers to imitating an entire battery unit of headless chickens when a disaster such as foot-and-mouth strikes.
Through these and numerous other episodes, the Government response has generally along the lines of (a) there is no problem; (b) there might be a problem but it’s only a minor one; and finally (c) well, yes, actually there’s a pretty big problem but we are in control of it. Honestly.
If you add to all that the assurances that have been given that the RPA would handle farm support payments smoothly and efficiently; and that stewardship would provide a generous and easily accessible source of funding which would reward farmers for environmental improvements then you can see why the industry doesn’t have total trust in what it hears from Westminster.
So I hope assuming control of our own farming regime will be an opportunity to turn the page, to deal frankly, fairly and openly with farmers. To listen to what they say and to take their views into account when shaping policy rather than merely telling them we are listening.
I should like to see closer ministerial contact with grassroots farmers, not just with those organisations which claim to represent them, because I can tell you from long personal experience that you will receive more valuable, common sense-based advice from a hard-bitten upland livestock farmer than you will from a farmer who has floated to the surface and spends most of his time yakking around a table at Stoneleigh.
To which end I hope when Defra speaks of continuing to support Brit- ish farmers it genuinely intends to do so, and is not merely saying so while desperately looking for ways to reduce its contributions.
In particular, I would draw your attention to the matter the CLA has raised about the Basic Payment Scheme. I think we all accept that at some point it would be desirable for farmers to operate successfully without direct support payments, even though in my view achieving that is only going to be possible if food prices can be raised and that extra cash is passed straight back to the producer – which I believe would be a more painful alternative than merely carrying on subsidising farming through general taxation.
But if direct farm support is to be tapered down, then – and this is the point the CLA makes – any money saved there should remain within the agricultural envelope, rather than being surreptitiously redistributed elsewhere.
We have to accept that as a result of EU policies we shall inherit an agricultural industry which is reliant on the lubricant of subsidy and will continue to be so, whatever mechanism is employed to deliver the money. To reduce the size of the farming support envelope in any way would merely leave us even more exposed to being undercut by food imported from areas where not merely are welfare standards and production costs lower but where farming continues to be state-subsidised.
That, I should warn you, would deal a fatal blow to large areas of British agriculture – and far more rapidly than you might have expected. Yours ever,
Ian