The Farmers' Union of Wales (FUW) has said the Welsh Government's announcement that mainstream Glastir contracts will not be extended will cause major concerns across the industry both in terms of the implications for farm businesses and the practicalities of designing and introducing a new replacement scheme over a period of just a few months.
The Welsh Government announced on Friday (21 July) that Glastir Advanced, Glastir Commons and Glastir Organic contracts would not be extended beyond December this year, and that all Welsh farmers would instead be offered the option to sign up to a 12 month whole farm scheme focussing on habitat land.
Responding to the announcement, FUW President Ian Rickman said:
"Wales currently has some 3,000 farms in these environmental agreements that will now come to an end in a few months time.
"Some of those have been in such agreements for thirty years, and all will have changed their farming practices and stock numbers to cope with the scheme rules.
"As such, this announcement will raise grave concerns for thousands of farming families, not only in terms of their financial viability but also with regard to how the Welsh Government will implement such a scheme over such a short period of time."
There are currently some 2,100 Glastir Advanced contract holders and more than 450 Glastir Organic contract holders, as well as 180 Glastir common land agreements involving vast numbers of commoners. It's understood that more than 17,000 Welsh farmers may be eligible to apply for the new interim scheme this autumn.
Mr Rickman also expressed significant disappointment that the farming industry had been excluded from discussions on the cancellation of Glastir contracts and the design and introduction of a new interim scheme.
"With all previous schemes the FUW and other key representatives have been involved in the design process for years, yet in this case, despite us having repeatedly raised questions regarding the future of Glastir since December, there has been no such codesign."
While the FUW understands the budgetary pressures on the rural development budget, Mr Rickman said that given the Welsh Government's stated commitment to sustainable farming, soon to be enshrined in Wales' first Agriculture Act, it was essential that the new interim scheme received at least as much funding as the schemes it would replace.
"We also sympathise with the Welsh Government over the pressures that UK Government cuts to our farm and rural development budget have caused.
"In successive announcements from December 2019, the UK Government announced cuts which add up to losses of more than £200 million for Welsh farmers and rural development.
"This was a complete betrayal of the promises made in the run up to the Brexit referendum and the 2019 Conservative manifesto, and we continue to maintain that that money and our future budgets should be restored to what they would have been had we remained members of the EU," added Mr Rickman.