Farmers’ Union of Wales President Glyn Roberts and Deputy President Ian Rickman have met with the agriculture leads of the main political parties in the run-up to the Welsh Senedd elections, highlighting industry concerns and the Union’s key manifesto asks.
Welcoming the opportunity to query various pledges made by the parties in their manifestos the President and Deputy President were able to emphasise the importance of the next Government committing to stability, family farms, supporting rural communities and Welsh jobs, sustainable agriculture and rewarding environmental outcomes.
The Union will hold the parties to account on their commitments to farming and work closely with the next Government to ensure future policies support thriving, sustainable family farms- for the benefit of the rural economy, the environment, food security and our unique rural culture and traditions.
FUW President Glyn Roberts said: “The Agriculture Bill white paper proposals were discussed at length, due to their far reaching consequences to our industry and its long term viability. Furthermore NVZ regulations, tree planting pledges, the parties commitments to ring fencing the agricultural budget, Bovine TB, the disappointing lack of commitment to place a cap on payment thresholds in order to favour family farms,and the potential complexity of a public goods scheme have been discussed in detail by the Union with the parties over the past few weeks.
“Whilst there were positive commitments to Wales’ farming communities, there has never been a more crucial election for the future of the agricultural sector in Wales. The FUW will continue to lobby for bespoke Welsh policies now and in future.”
FUW Deputy President Ian Rickman added: “ The Union has left no stone unturned in our efforts to stress the importance of various policy areas to our future decision makers. The FUW is not affiliated to any political party, and therefore has a duty to work with both the government of the day and the opposition parties, irrespective of their political persuasions.
“For the period of the next Welsh Senedd and beyond, we are committed to lobbying all those in Cardiff to ensure that agriculture and family farms receive the attention and respect that they warrant – for the sake of all our futures.”
If you need to refresh your knowledge of what the parties have pledged, here are the links to their respective manifestos:
Plaid Cymru: https://www.partyof.wales/manifesto
Plaid Cymru rural manifesto: https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/plaid2016/pages/10962/attachments/original/1618859751/English_-_Rural_Manifesto.pdf?1618859751
Labour manifesto: https://movingforward.wales/
Conservatives manifesto: https://www.conservatives.wales/plan-recovery-and-change
Liberal Democrats manifesto: https://www.welshlibdems.wales/manifesto
FUW manifesto: https://www.fuw.org.uk/media/attachments/2021/04/09/senedd_manifesto-2021-interactive-eng.pdf
FUW key asks: https://www.fuw.org.uk/media/attachments/2021/04/19/10-key-asks-english-final.pdf