All-party backing for green energy help for farmers
ASIGNIFICANT amendment to the Welsh Agriculture Bill was secured in the Senedd last week after members from all political parties backed proposals by Mid and West Wales Senedd Member Jane Dodds.
The amendment seeks to ensure there is Welsh Government support available to farmers who are looking to establish small-scale renewable energy production on their land and to support the agricultural industry in making changes to increase energy efficiency in their businesses.
In recent years there has been an increase in demand from farmers seeking to diversify their operations and set up small-scale renewable energy production on their land.
Many were disappointed that a previous Welsh Government scheme to incentivise small-scale hydropower on private land was discontinued by the Welsh Government in 2021 and it is hoped Ms Dodds’ amendment to the bill will lead to increased support from the government going forward.
She said: “Our local farmers feed the nation but also act as guardians of our land, protecting and maintaining the environment and nature contained within it.
“It is only right we support them in their efforts to provide renewable energy and diversify operations.
“The Welsh Agriculture Bill as a whole, is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to effect positive change for our world-class agricultural sector, helping our farmers to do what they do best and to support the links between our farmers, their local communities, and our natural environment.
“My amendment enables the Welsh Government to support farmers across Wales to adopt and adapt to manage energy effectively.
“My amendment specifically focuses on keeping farmers on our land and helping them diversify rather than promoting the sale of family farms to large corporations for wind or solar farming.”
Meanwhile, the Farmers’ Union of Wales Younger Voice for Farming committee chair, Gemma Haines, said the Agriculture (Wales) Bill “must support the next generation of farmers” at a meeting with local Senedd Members.
Welcoming Sarah Murphy, MS for Bridgend, and Huw Irranca-Davies, MS for Ogmore, to her farm, Gemma stressed that it was disappointing that there is still no explicit mention of support for young/new entrants in the Agriculture (Wales) Bill.
“Whilst there is an opposition amendment tabled at Stage 3 which would correct this, and the FUW has lobbied for this to happen since the introduction of the Bill, support for tenants, new entrants and common land graziers are also missing from the Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) proposals. We urgently need to correct this so that these new policies support the next generation of farmers,” said Gemma Haines.
Mrs Haines added that it was encouraging to see that as part of the ongoing co-design, working groups have been set up on each of these areas.
“We hope the outcomes of the groups will be reflected in the final consultation expected later this year,” she said.
Union officials further stressed that the Universal Actions and SFS contract length must be achievable (or flexible enough) and proportionate for all farming systems and regions (including tenants and commoners), with a high enough associated baseline payment to ensure a critical mass of farmers are able to access the scheme.
Mabon ap Gwynfor MS said: “We’ve come a long way from ‘Brexit and our Land’ – an early iteration of agricultural support following Brexit.
“Thanks to Plaid Cymru’s hard work with the Welsh Government through our co-operation agreement, we’ve been able to make the Bill far more balanced, ensuring the valid concerns of the farming community have been heard, and that cultural, social, environmental and economic considerations are integral to this Bill.
“Thanks to Plaid Cymru, the role of agriculture in the Welsh economy and in nurturing the Welsh language is now in the face of the Bill. We have recognition of the importance of food production, and a multi-annual settlement that will allow farmers to plan ahead.
“It is, however, a missed opportunity not to have nature restoration in the face of the bill. Nature and farming are not mutually exclusive – farmers are the guardians of the land, and they, too, want to see nature being restored.
“But we have several other opportunities to ensure that the government takes action on this, and the planned biodiversity bill which is part of our agreement, is one such opportunity.”