Farming Matters: Ian Davis - The time is right to bring back 'the man from the Ministry'

Ian Davis, former Hertfordshire mixed farmer, now environment academic, explains why Defra needs to bring back the human touch when dealing with farmers. In a discussion at Groundswell on June 23, Defra Secretary George Eustice talked about the need to rebuild trust between English farmers and the department, citing changes that have been made to the Sustainable Farming Incentive resulting from the pilot.I replied that trust is fundamentally lacking between farmers and the Defra family, especially the Rural Payments Agency (RPA), as a result of their past treatment of us all and rebuilding that trust will be neither easy nor quick.Like all other farmers who have not used agents to engage with the various subsidy schemes, I have become used to reading long and complicated guidance publications from the RPA and Defra which often seemed self-contradictory and required me to have several different documents open at once to cross-refer different rules.Each year seemed to bring new complications and, paradoxically, less and less simplicity in obtaining answers to the many queries that arose.WorseThe move of all the guidance to GOV.UK made this even worse, as it became harder to cross refer documents unless I printed them out, against all the advice to cut our paper use.This was made worse still with the closure of local Ministry offices, where we stood at least some chance of talking to the same person more than once.The move of Defra to the single contact phone number was the final nail in the coffin for any vestige of being approachable, invariably requiring listening to a long recorded message about the latest disease issue in a crop or animal species I do not farm, before being presented with a complicated set of menu options to get to talk to the right department in the right Defra arms-length body.This is all so far removed from the old approach exemplified by the local man from the Ministry who was based in a nearby town, actually knew where our farm was and knew us by name.Professional Our own example was Albert Gain, a friendly and thoroughly professional man with many years of personal farming industry experience before joining the Ministry.I recall him arriving here, when I was only a schoolboy, to talk dad through the new Farm and Horticulture Development Scheme.He completed most of the application form on our behalf before submitting it from his office and keeping us informed of our application progress.His arrival at the farm was always welcome and he achieved much as a result.MaximiseIf Defra genuinely wants to maximise the benefit of its new freedom from the rules of the Common Agricultural Policy and ensure the Environmental Land Management (ELM) scheme delivers for farmers, the environment and food security, then it is time to return to farms having a dedicated point of contact.It would be someone who knows us when we call and would not have to ask us security questions, then put us on hold while they look up where and what we farm before being able to discuss our queries.They might just even avoid all the wasted Defra time in things like erroneous RPA mapping changes or the highly bureaucratic registration of minor changes to farm land use or business structure.That would be the start of rebuilding genuine trust between farmers and Defra.I will not hold my breath.