Politics

Farm and environmental groups have warned the new payment rates for the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), published this week, are too low and ‘lack ambition’.

Cefin Campbell MS, Plaid Cymru’s Spokesperson for Agriculture and Rural Affairs writes.

With major farming policy changes in Wales set for next year there was one clear message emerging from this week’s Royal Welsh Winter Fair – sustainability.

Labour’s Shadow Farming Minister, Daniel Zeichner, has committed the party to backing a food self-sufficiency target.

Jim McMahon, MP for Oldham West and Royton, has been appointed Shadow Defra Secretary by Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer in a reshuffle.

The Welsh Conservatives have urged Ministers to ban foreign multinationals from ‘greenwashing’ their emissions by using public money to plant trees.

Farm groups have raised conflict of interest concerns after an Environment Agency (EA) employee working on Nitrate Vulnerable Zones (NVZs) policy was found to have spoken at an Animal Rebellion march.

Welsh Labour and Plaid Cymru have agreed to work together on a number of key rural issues, including the Government’s controversial water regulations, as part of a landmark Co-operation Agreement published this week.

The Tenant Farmers Association (TFA) has accused Defra Minister Lord Benyon of giving a ‘completely incorrect’ account of a recent meeting with Farming Minister Victoria Prentis to the House of Lords.

The Nature Friendly Farming Network has called for Government support to help farmers move away from diesel, after Defra Minister Lord Benyon claimed it would not be used on-farm in 15 years time.