Great in principle but many farmers are yet to be convinced

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The Country Land and Business Association president ticks all the boxes when it comes to using WFA – he has always been an early adaptor of technology, is computer-literate, and, perhaps most importantly, he has a broadband connection.

His farming business, in Buckinghamshire – traditional mixed dairy, beef and combinable cropping – and all the rules and regulations and paperwork associated with it makes it an ideal candidate for having the burden of form-filling removed.

“The problem in the early days was that you had to download and upload and with most people then on dial-up it was a time consuming nightmare. That was why people didn’t use it. Now it’s all online and if you have broadband it is much better,” he says.

The reality, however, is he remains very much in the minority when it comes to taking advantage of the initiative Defra wants to promote as a real aid to cutting red tape and form-filling.

“There are a few people like me who got involved and are very enthusiastic about the principle of it,” says Sir Henry.

“I do my annual survey online, I do my soil plan online and this year, the SPS is also online, as well as the June and December agricultural surveys.

“So it’s getting there. But getting the rest of the industry to adopt is another matter.”

No incentives

“The problem, I think, is that Defra doesn’t have sufficient funding to promote it, unlike the Inland Revenue who offer incentives to file online and put a lot of money behind it.

“They have put in a huge amount of money and effort and made their system simple. I just don’t think Defra has the funding to do that.”

The aspiration to have a target date for having all farmers online was fine in itself, he says. “But aspiration is one thing and delivery is another and the farming community is disparate and difficult to get together in groups to explain it all.

“The way anything builds up in farming is by peer pressure. One man buys a particular drill, another looks at it, sees the benefits and thinks I’ll have one of those. That’s the best way to promote things to fellow farmers. But that takes a long time.

“If Defra had more resources and the people to show how to use it they would do much better. WFA is not difficult but people used to using computers will get on with it better than others.”

Saying that, he believes much more could be done to join up various initiatives to make it easier for farmers to deal with, for example, the single payment, crop protection plans and the 101 other things a farmer has to do. Delivering a joined-up system is the longer-term aim for WFA.

Not impressed

Sir Henry is not impressed with statistics, which indicate that more than 90 per cent of the population has broadband access.

“There are many farmers who just don’t have access to broadband. Ninety per cent of the population might have, but you need to look at people who live 6km or more from an exchange – that’s the problem and it is one of the things we at the CLA receive the most complaints about.

“As broadband gets faster and faster in towns and cities, it doesn’t in the countryside and, if you want to rent out your buildings to other businesses, the first question asked is ‘have you got a broadband connection?’

“The countryside has a bit of a reputation for not having broadband so it’s a big issue.”

As for using the WFA interface, it is largely a matter of filling in numbers and ticking boxes, he says.

“It’s not bad although it can be a bit slow. But then Defra doesn’t have the money to invest to deliver the speed people are used to when using Google, for example

“But once you are on to the system everything you need is there. For example, when you log on for the annual survey your previous information comes up and it is easy to make the changes.

Good library

“It is also very good for information. I have a shelf seven feet long and it is filled with compliance literature from the last few years in printed form. The website has a very good library so all the regulations and schemes are in one place.

“WFA as a broadband system works very well but if you don’t have broadband it would drive you mad.”

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According to Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher, 60 per cent of farmers now use computers, but mainly for googling and emailing.

WFA has certainly saved time for Sir Henry. He estimates the SPS takes about 1–1.5 hours to complete online compared with two or three days form-filling.

“You still have to gather the information but online is far easier to complete. Make a mistake, press the back button and you go to the previous screen. No more Tippex and lots of opportunities to edit and change.”

He dismisses as ‘silly’ the concerns of some farmers that if they use the system they are giving Defra information it could use against them.

“What Defra has said about doing things online – and not just WFA – is that you are less likely to get an inspection because the system is self-correcting, ie, if you fill in a wrong number the system will recognise the error and you can correct it.

“In a perfect world if everyone went online it would make farmers and all the agencies they interface with a lot more efficient, but it will take a long-time to get to that point.

“Sixty per cent of farmers now use computers – but mainly for Googling and e-mail.”

Despite current concerns about uptake, he believes WFA is worth looking at for any farmer who is reasonably computer literate – ‘if you can use a browser you’ll be able to handle the WFA’.

But his view is that to really take off, WFA needs serious funding and a big push by Defra, which could even mean giving farmers some sort of incentive to move online.