We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.Welsh slam Defra's 'dangerous' CAP vision
A FARMERS Union of Wales delegation to Brussels has slammed Defra’s approach to CAP reform.
The union maintains the department’s wide-ranging policy document is ‘dangerous’ to the industry at a time when all parties should be pushing for a properly funded scheme recognising the key role agriculture must play in maintaining food security and mitigating climate change.
Although a favourable euro-sterling exchange rate had significantly helped the industry over the past year, FUW president, Gareth Vaughan, said the latest Aberystwyth University Farm Business Survey results highlight the industry’s continuing reliance on CAP payments to remain financially viable.
“So, in the absence of a system that ensures fair returns for our produce, the outcome of the forthcoming discussions on the post-2013 CAP is crucial to our future prospects,” he said.
“But to get some idea of what the worst possible post-2013 CAP might look like, we need look no further than our own Westminster government policy, as laid out in the Defra-Treasury 2005 CAP policy document.
“Since 2005 we have been warning that that policy - it advocates less direct aid, more imports into the EU, and lower food prices - would devastate our industry and the rural areas in which we live.
“Research commissioned by Defra and the Welsh Assembly has also confirmed what we have been saying been saying - that Defra’s policy would lead to a 26 per cent fall in cattle prices, cattle numbers would plummet by between 26 and 29 per cent, sheep prices would fall by around 12 per cent and sheep numbers drop by around 17 per cent.
“Similar trends are predicted for the milk, pig and poultry sectors. But worryingly, while it may have been drafted in 2005 this is not Defra’s 2005 policy: This is Defra’s policy now,” added Mr Vaughan.
“Despite their own reports warning that their policy will hasten the decline in agricultural employment and the wider rural economy, while undermining the viability of the rural population, Defra has made no u -turn and, for all the warm words recently spoken by Hillary Benn in favour of agriculture, its policy is to destroy our rural communities and businesses.”
