We are urgently developing research requirements with other European laboratories to make sure we understand and the disease (Schmallenberg) better.FUW repeats calls for Glastir postponement
WITH so many unanswered questions, the Farmers Union of Wales has repeated its call for the start date of the Welsh Assembly’s controversial Glastir land management scheme to be postponed.
“Given the scale of problems surrounding the scheme’s implementation, not least those associated with common land, we believe its introduction should be put back 12 months,” says Lorraine Howells, who chairs the FUW’s common land committee and is also a member of the Assembly’s recently established common land working group.
“Committee members are unanimous in expressing their concerns over the current timetable, given the diverse problems associated with Glastir,” she added.
“Almost 18 per cent of Welsh farms have common land and is therefore of critical importance to Welsh agriculture, especially in those areas where common land makes up the majority of farmland.
“Everything must be done to make Glastir accessible to as many commoners throughout Wales as possible ─ but this will take time.
“The transition from LFA payments, in the form of Tir Mynydd, to the Glastir agri-environmental scheme means a massive escalation in eligibility and compliance criteria.
“This will be a complex enough process for normal farmland, but on common land the complexities are multiplied due to the different ways in which common land is used in different areas, and the diverse range of habitats that exist on Welsh commons.
“Tir Mynydd and its predecessors have helped stem rural depopulation and maintain livestock for decades.
“But if we do not get Glastir right for common land it will have severe consequences for Welsh communities and environments and accelerate the abandonment of the ancient hefting systems that have defined much of the Welsh uplands.”
